One Friendship: A One Direction Fictional Story
by TheOneArtist.ToRuleThemALL
Summary: This is my life if I were to meet One Direction. Keep in mind this is a story co-written be me and my two close friends Alexes and Jenny so if you notice a shift in writing styles, that's why. Enjoy!
1. Prolouge

One Friendship

PROLOUGE

Well I don't know where to start but I know what I need to say. I never expected to get where I am and I can only thank my five best friends. To start from the beginning would take hours but it would make no sense any other way.


	2. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

"KIMBERLEY! HURRY YOUR ASS UP OR YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE TO SCHOOL!" typical of my dad to scream profanity across the house early in the morning. I looked at the clock and to my surprise he wasn't over-exaggerating today. Shit! "I'm coming!" Thank god school is only ten minutes from here. I rush out the door to my car and start her up; I don't care what anyone says about cars, they are all female and all deserve a name and mine is named Milla. Milla is a deep aqua blue-green Citroen Ds with custom interior, don't judge me, I can be a girl who loves cars. Any-who, I was off to school and I was in no rush because with my luck there would be cops. At the red light I hit play on my stereo and One Direction blares through my stereo system. I finally get to school and haul ass up the steps and down the hall to English with the worst teacher I have ever had in my life.

She is talking her life away about her adopted daughter as usual with another story about how much Angel loves eggs and how when she was younger she used to despise them. Like I cared. I sat in my seat that was luckily close to the door so I didn't get too many looks. If anything they were looks of jealousy meaning she was talking about her daughter before class even started once again. Class felt like it went on for hours, which in technicality it was over one hour but that is beside the point; what matters is that I can indulge in my favorite class next, Social Psychology.

My Psychology teacher is so passionate about this subject that it astounds me but I get to class and she rushes to the door, tapes a piece of paper to the door and runs off with tears running down her face. Confused, I walk to the door and read the note

"Dear class,

I deeply apologize for my sudden cancellation of class today and I hope it doesn't

affect too many of you. I have horrible news; class has been truly cancelled indefinitely

due to family matters. Please understand that I cannot work under such distress.

Sincerely,

Michelle"

That's dreadful, well now I have two extra hours in the middle of my day. Damn, I wonder if the counselor will allow me to switch around my high school schedule until class resumes so that I don't have to wait so long between my first and last class. If only I could have History second period instead of fourth.

As I walk into the front office, I notice that the principal is having a heated discussion with a parent and I really want to know what it's about, Damn me and my nosy teenage urges. I sit in the chair outside the counselor's office listening intently.

"I don't care how famous they are they will not get special treatment at our school! If they neglect to show up to their college classes they will be kicked out."

"I know that those are the rules but they are always traveling, I can't change when their tours are scheduled!"

I saw the counselor get off the phone and I decided it was time for me to stop eaves dropping. I walked in and to my surprise she was not in a great mood either.

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

"Oh just peachy, but that's not a concern to you, I imagine you came to talk to me about something related to school?"

"Actually, yes. My Psychology class has been cancelled indefinitely and I was thinking that maybe I could adjust my schedule temporarily so that I can have History second period instead of fourth considering I would have four hours between my two high school classes."

"I don't know that I can put you into the second period regular class but I could get you the individual study through the Learning Post. Would you be okay with that?"

"Absolutely! That would be amazing, thank you so much!"

"You need to give these to your parents and have them read and sign them" she tells me handing over a small stack of papers.

So worth the paperwork, I think to myself. I walk out with a thanks and a reminder that I must continue attending my fourth period class until the forms are filled out and approved by the principal. I'm so excited that I don't even watch where I am going as I rush to Milla(my car if you don't recall) to call my mom. I speed around the corner when I run right into someone else and fall flat on my ass.

"Oh my, I am so sorry." I manage to spit out past my total embarrassment.

"Don't worry about it, happens to me all the time. Here, let me help you up."

That accent, that voice. I know that voice! I look up and to my complete and utter shock, I see the face of the one and only Louis Tomlinson, hand extended to help me up. I must look like an idiot because he starts to laugh which makes me turn a bright red even more embarrassed than before. I take his extended hand and try to introduce myself but I can't force myself to say a word. He must think I'm an idiot or something, God why can't I be better at talking to hot guys.

"I'm Louis" He says and to my surprise I muster up the ability to say two words,

"I know." Damn it! Seriously brain? What is wrong with me? And at that he chuckles, of course he does he has such a great sense of humor that anything can seem funny to him.

" I'm Kimberley, but you can call me Kim. Sorry again about bumping into you, that was totally my fault I should have been paying attention. I was just kinda heading to my car so I could call my mom" I stopped. "But you don't care. Haha wow, I am so embarrassed."

"Why? All you did was bump into me." He has a smile on that makes me just want to melt, he is so gorgeous I can't believe I am meeting my celebrity crush like this God I'm an idiot.

"Well first I ran into you and now I'm making a fool of myself by rambling on nervously. What's not to be embarrassed by?"

"Don't be nervous, It's not like you're being tested or anything" I can not only see his smile, but I can hear it in his voice as he talks.

"Oh wow, I don't know if you've realized this but you're kinda famous and for me it is like a test to meet a famous musical artist. Though under the circumstance, I have probably already failed this test" "better luck next time you moron" I mumble to myself.

"So you said you were heading to your car right?"

"Oh yeah, I just had uhm I got these for a schedule adjustment." I stuttered holding up the papers that were now slightly crumbled from being in my hand as I fell.

"I'll walk you to your car then."

So I lead him to where my car is parked and the whole way there I am mentally yelling at myself for being so stupid. Why did my mind have to jumble up like that now? I just don't understand myself sometimes. As we reach Milla Louis lets out a whistle of approval, that makes me beam; proud to be the owner of such a beauty.

"I bet she was a piece of work, not many like her are left."

"She was a hard one to get my hands on but I was able to find the right guy who didn't want her anymore and as they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure, or in my case woman but oh well."

I unlock the door and put my papers into my glove box where I know they will be safe just in case I happen to run into another superstar and fall on my ass. I can't believe I am talking casually about my car to Louis Tomlinson! Like the one and only Louis the Tommo Tomlinson!

"I take it you like cars?" I ask trying to prompt that casual conversational feeling we had just moments ago, and it almost worked.

"Yeah, well I don't know too much about cars but I" and he was cut off by the loud screech of a girl. This is just fantastic, I am having a normal conversation with Louis and it's ruined by a stupid ass fangirl who comes running right at him.

"Get in." I tell him and he hops into the car closing the door just as she jumps for where he was standing only a few seconds ago.

"That was close, but now what there's sure to be more and I am so not in the mood to deal with screaming fans today."

"Well I know a place that's sure to be deserted, we could go there if you would like. I promise I won't kidnap you." I say with a grin.

"Sounds great."

I start up my car and that's when I realize that my stereo is about to play one of his songs and he'll think I'm another obsessed fan. Wonderful, just damn wonderful. Instead of sitting there in dread, I reach over and turn the volume off on my radio so he doesn't hear himself singing through the speakers of my car.

"Hey, why did you turn off the volume? I love music."

"I just didn't think you would want to listen to the CD that I have in at the moment.."

Now I'm feeling awkward not knowing what else to do or say. I'm already driving off to the lake which will be empty since it is the morning on a school day, so I can't change the disk. I am so screwed I think to myself as he reaches for the stereo controls. The volume turns up and surprise surprise it's a One Direction song and what does he do? He laughs at me, I must have a funny look on my face because he said

"Relax, I figured that's exactly what would be in your CD player judging on how t=you acted when you ran into me."

"You probably think I'm some obsessed fangirl now, awesome. I feel no better than Cassidy now. Damn."

"Who is Cassidy?"

"Oh right, she's the one that ran towards you screaming like a banshee."

I like it when he laughs; it's so fun and lighthearted. I wish I had friends like him sometimes my friends can be a little on the dark heavy clouded side of the sky when humor was involved. A little bit of light hearted humor would go a long way for my friends. I listen to my music as I drive along to the lake and notice that he is singing along with the songs. That is the absolute last thing I expected. Glad to know that he isn't judging me for having this CD in my stereo at the moment. We pull up to the entrance and no one is in the booth, there is no way I can get inside without anyone to operate this damned gate!

"Looks like I am parking outside and we walk in."

"You weren't kidding when you said it would be deserted though I thought there would at least be someone watching the gate."

"Tell me about it."

I pull up and park on the side of the hill slightly further up the road and we walk back to the gate to get inside. I lead Louis towards my normal spot where I got to write after school before I have to go home and do my homework. Crap, I hope he doesn't find my song book that I have hidden there, that could quite possibly be catastrophic. I have so many horrible songs in there, if I could just reach my hiding spot while he's not looking then I can hold onto it so he doesn't read it. Sounds logical enough but when we reach my spot, all my stuff is gone! My hand made easel that I made with the branches, my chair even the tree my book was hiding in has been cut down.

"Oh no! This is bad, this is very bad" I'm frantic. I can't let anyone get a hold of those songs! I was going to use hem when I g to the agency in three weeks!

"What's bad? What is going on?" He keeps asking but I ignore him and search for my song book.

Thats when he grabs my shoulder to get my attention. I am frozen, I want so badly to scream at the thought of losing so much of my work. I should have hid it in the house! Why did I have to be so dumb about it and hide it outside? I am finaly able to move and I turn to look at him.

"I had a spot here and in the tree that used to be right here I had a book"

"what kind of book? It has to be important if you;re acting this way about losing it."

"It's a book of songs that I wrote, they're all mostly in my memory but there's a few of my new ones that I don't have memorized and I'm afraid I won't be able to duplicate them."

"Wow, I never would have left a book like that outside in a tree"

And that's when I gave him the death glare, which seemed to surprise him more that anything today had.

"You think I hadn't realized that? It's not like there's a safe place for me to keep these things! I have no privacy at home since my parents like to do spot checks to make sure I don't have drugs in my room. Just because someone wants to be a musician doesn't mean they are a druggie, but m dad doesn't get that! Damn it! Why am I telling you any of this?"

He's shocked, I can see it on his face. Shit why did I yell at him? It's not his fault I was stupid.

"Sorry, I shouldn't be yelling at you. I'm an idiot."

"No, it's fine really. From looking at you and talking to you, I never would have guessed that you weren't that happy."

"I put on a great show don't I?"

"You shouldn't have to be putting on a show though. You should genuinely be happy."

I had to change the subject, this is getting too personal too fast and I hardly know him!

"What were you doing at my school?"

"Management wanted us to go to school here in California."

"Why did you choose Santa Clarita to Pick a school then?"

"It seemed like a small and nice place to live, we all agreed on here"

"Well you are highly misinformed. This place sucks, take my word on that"

He just laughs, and that makes me smile and before I know it I'm laughing too. He is just so easy to talk to. And then my phone starts singing Barbie Girl to me, what an embarrassing ring tone to have.

"Hello?"

"Where are you? We were supposed to meet for lunch after you got out of psych. Jenny and I have been here for twenty minutes!"

"Shit! What time is it?"

"Ohhhhh, Roughly Eleven-fifty."

"Oh my god, I am so sorry Alexes! I'll head over I just got caught up talking to someone."

"For twenty minutes?"

"Actually closer to two hours and twenty minutes, my psychology class was cancelled"

" Who have you been talking to for so long River?"

"A new friend..."

"Invite them to lunch with us! I would love to meet them!"

"I know you will"

We both hung up and I looked over at Louis who was still sitting on the sand where we were talking a few moments ago. There's no way he's going to want to go to lunch with me, Alexes, and Jenny.

"Hey Louis?"

"Yeah?"

"Uhm, well I'm supposed to meet some friends for lunch and I totally forgot but I was curious if you wanted to join us..." I can't believe I just invited Louis Tomlinson to lunch with me. AHHHH this is so nerve racking!

"Sure! Where are we going?"

"Really? You'll go?"

"Was I supposed to say no?"

"NO! I mean I wasn't expecting you to say yes but right uh we are going to Souplantation."

"I have no idea what that is, but let's be off then."


	3. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

We walked back to Milla and when I got in I reached for my CD case in the back to change the CD. What can I choose? I toss the case to him and tell him to choose a new disk. He rummages through my music selection and settles on my CD of The Fray, of course he does. We drive down the freeway with The Fray's She Is playing and I start to sing along and out of the corner of my eye I see Louis reach to turn down the volume. I stop singing because I don't want to humiliate myself in front of one of my favorite musical artists.

"Why did you stop singing?"

"Because I don't want to humiliate myself in front of someone with so much talent." It's exactly what I was thinking just moments before he asked me. We are pulling into the parking lot by the restaurant and I'm afraid that a lot of people will recognize him.

"I'm gonna call one of my friends really quick to be sure neither of them scream when they see you"

"Alright"

"Hey Alexes?"

"Are you here yet?"

"Yes, I just want you to promise me something before we go inside"

"What?"

"You and Jenny can't freak out okay?""

"About what?"

"Just promise me okay?"

"Fine. Now get in here we are getting nasty looks from our waitress"

I hang up the phone and get out of the car and Louis follow suit.

"In we go, time for an adventure" He says with a smirk.

"You're funny" I roll my eyes because I know how much of an adventure it will really be.

We walk inside and I see Jenny and Alexes talking at a table so i tell the hostess that we are here with them and she leads us over to the table.

"Hey guys, I want you to meet my new friend Louis"

They stop talking and their eyes widen. I start laughing because they look so funny like this, I thought I must have looked twice as stupid when I met him which made me shut up.

"This is a joke right?" Jenny managed to say through her hyperventilation.

"Nope, it's really him" I say taking the seat next to Jenny and Louis took the seat beside me seeing as that it was a circular table.

"How did you guys meet" Alexes and Jenny asked in unison.

That made me laugh and I knew they would ask so I gave them the true answer.

"I embarrassed the hell out of myself by literally running into him and falling flat on my ass"

I just waited for them to laugh, but nothing happened. Now I'm getting confused by their silence. They are some of my more talkative friends.

"Earth to Jenny."

Alexes responded by saying "Huston, we have a problem. Jenny has left the planet.

This made us all crack up and when the waitress saw that the table was finally full she put on a smile and came to take order. Louis had no clue what to get so I gave him a few suggestions and he decided to try the corned beef and cabbage, one of my absolute favorites. Alexes got a vegetarian dish of some sort like she always did, Jenny got a salad and the tortilla soup and I got a bowl of cheese and broccoli soup. I lost my appetite after losing my book of songs and my lack of food consumption concerned my friends who know I eat constantly.

"So why are you upset Kim?"

"What do you mean?"

"You aren't eating nearly as much as you usually do meaning there's something wrong." She had me there, Jenny has a way of knowing when something is wrong; that's one of the things that everyone loves about her.

"You know my spot that I go to after school to write?"

"What happened to it?" Alexes is almost shouting because she knows just how much I love it there.

"It got torn down, everything is gone, even my song book.."

"Oh hell no! That did not happen!"

"Thanks Jenny but I just need to find my book by the time of my meeting in three weeks or I'm SOL."

"You'll find it River! I will Help you with my psychic abilities!"

The three of us started laughing but Louis was just looking at us confused.

"Okay Louis, Alexes and I call each other River and the River she is based off of has psychic abilities due to scientific experimentation. It's far more complicated than that but there's a basic synopsis."

"That still makes no sense but it's an inside thing, I totally get it. I have tons of inside jokes with Harry." That sentence brought a smirk to his face and the mention of Harry made Jenny almost faint.

We finished up lunch and decided we would all go back to the lake to look for my song book. I wasn't too optimistic.

When we got to the lake there was actually someone at the gate who let us in, as we pulled up I asked her if there was a lost and found here and she pointed me in the direction of the building it was in. I parked and nearly sprinted to the lost and found hoping to find my book there and to my surprise it was. Relief shot through me then I realized that some of the pages were partially torn out. I flipped through it to find some of my songs were missing. My new songs are gone and I'm crushed. Someone stole my music surely to call it their own. I sank to the floor and struggled to fight the tears threatening to fall. Instead of crying i jumped up and stormed out of the building. I sent a text to the girls and told them I was going home and to make sure Louis got home.

I reached my car and got in as I started to cry. I feel so stupid crying over music that I'm too afraid to show to anyone but it hurts to realize how horribly rotten people are. I lock the doors and start the car but I know I shouldn't drive while crying so I decide to put in my One Direction CD and play Moments. Moments is such a beautiful song and the beauty of the music relaxes me so I can finally stop crying when I realize that Louis is walking towards me. Damn it, damn it, damn it! Don't come over here, I'm listening to your music like an obsessive fangirl and I've been crying. I flip down my visor to look in a mirror and realize that my face is red and puffy and my makeup is running down my face leaving blue streaks on my cheeks. I reach into my glove box for some tissues and begin to wipe away the blue eyeliner and Louis is standing next to my door motioning for me to roll down my window. I immediately hit the power button on my radio and roll down the window while still wiping my face.

"What happened?"

"I found it.."

"Why were you crying if you found it?"

"Because some ass hole stole some of my songs. specifically the ones I was going to use to audition for a talent agency with."

"Well I might have a solution for you but it comes with a price." There's that smirk again and there is no denying that his smile can melt anyone from the inside out.

"What's the solution then?"

"You and your friends come with me back home and you can meet the guys."

"That sounds awesome, but how is that a solution to my current problem?"

"I will help you write a song to knock the socks off of those talent agents."

I almost screamed in joy! "Oh my God! You would really do that for me?"

"Anything for a friend in need but here's the catch."

Oh no, now I'm not so sure I want this help. At least depending on what the price is.

"You need to sing for me. I won't help you unless you do."

That made me nervous but I realized that I would have to sing in front of him anyways if we were going to be writing a song so I agreed but I needed a little time to relax and not be so choked up from crying.

"I have to swing by my house really quick first, is that alright?"

"Yeah, do what you've got to but be ready to sing by the time we get to my place."

I call the girls and tell them to meet me at my house and I will drive us all to Louis place for a hangout with the guys. When I pull up outside my house I notice that my bedroom light is on.

"Shit." I tried to keep it under my breath but it didn't work, Louis still heard me and of curse he asked

"What's wrong?" and followed my gaze to the lit bedroom window.

"Drug search which means there's no going inside now especially when they find out I'm going over to a house filled with guys. I'll just call my mom in a bit."

"I don't want you to get in trouble though."

"I can talk my mom into letting me stay, don't worry about it. I just need to pull up past the house, the girls know where to park and they will me us over here."

Shortly thereafter, Alexes and Jenny walk over to the car talking very loud and hop right into the back seat still going on about something that happened the other day in their elective class.

"Hey ladies! You ready to head off to the guys' place?"

"You know it girl!" Of course Jenny is excited, she is about to meet Harry Styles and everyone knows how in love with him she is. I bet she is glad she was wearing a cute dress today. Alexes is also so obviously excited to meet Liam. Ever since Jenny and I got her addicted to 1D she had troubles figuring out who her favorite was until she realized that she thought Liam was better than any of the others. I didn't have to be excited about meeting my favorite because that's how this all started, by me meeting Louis.


	4. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

I pulled away from the curb and we were off.

"Where to?"

"Well or flat is in the Skycrest Apartment complex"

"Oh, I know how to get there. Do the guys know we are coming?"

"No, I want to surprise them by introducing them to my new friends!"

"If you say so." I can't help but chuckle and throw out, "You're a spaz." which made everyone laugh once again.

It was just so easy to get along with Louis, he is one of the easiest people to talk to that I have ever met. We jokingly talked until we reached the apartments and we all piled out of the car, no one more excited than Jenny was. She made us wait ten minutes before we could walk up so that she could be certain she looked perfect and even on the way up she was fretting about her hair and whether or not a dress was the right thing to be wearing. Then I think to myself... What am I wearing today? I never thought about it but I'm wearing my bright pink skinny jeans so I definitely look good today.

"Alright ladies. Here we are." Louis announces as he swings the door open.

"Honey! I'm hoooome!" And I started thinking, did they all live in here? They could certainly all fit in here see as though it's the biggest apartment in the entire complex. We followed Louis inside and I was in shock at how tidy it was since let's face it, guys make huge messes. That's when Harry came bounding around the corner and tackled Louis to the floor. It was so funny, I could not stop laughing no matter how hard I tried!

"These are my new friends." Louis told Harry, gesturing towards the three of us who were still laughing at what we just witnessed.

I stepped forward hand extended and said "I'm Kim." he got up and instead of shaking my hand, he hugged me. Hmm... Was not expecting that to happen.

Then Jenny introduced herself and got a hug as well. By the look on her face, you could tell she was content with getting a hug from her all time celebrity crush. Alexes introduced herself as well and the boys led us on a tour around their apartment. By the end of the tour, it was obvious it was just the two of them sharing the, as they call it, flat.

"Harry!" Louis yelled. "We must invite the rest of the lads over! Kimberley is going to sing for us!"

I froze. All of One Direction is going to hear me sing? Oh no, I think I'm going to pass out.

"Okay!" Harry said as he ran off to get his phone.

"Riverrrrr. You didn't tell us you were going to sing for them."

"I didn't know I was going to. My deal with Louis was that he could hear me sing, not the whole group of them!"

"Kim, calm down." Jenny reassured me "You'll do fine. Just get past the nerves ASAP! They will be here any minute!"

"okay, not helping Jenny."

We all started laughing because we knew it was true. I love my friends, they can be reassuring but when they try too hard it only gets worse. Thank goodness I don't get nervous in front of my friends when I sing. If I just focus on my friends I should do brilliantly.

The door swings open and in walk Zayn, Liam, and Niall.

"Vas happenin?" Of course, how did I know that was going to happen?

We introduce ourselves to the rest of the guys and they run off to find Louis and Harry.

"Uhm Where did they all just go?"

"This place Isn't that big, we even got the personal tour."

"We might as well follow where the other three went."

We walked around looking for where the guys had gone and heard some laughing coming from what I believe is the game room. I was right, they are all tackling each other on the giant couch. In the corner of the room I noticed sound equipment like mics, amps, guitars, speakers, and a drum set. That made me more nervous for some reason and while I was off in my own world, Alexes and Jenny went to go hang out with the guys. I didn't notice how long I was standing there until I was tackled from behind by Louis who was then tackled by Harry.

"You don't tackle a girl when she's in her own little world Louis!" Harry shouted.

I couldn't help but say "Why Harry? Do people tackle you when you're in your own world?"

It was on, I am getting chased in 3... 2...1 "RUN!"

I ran out of the room swinging the door shut behind me to give me a few seconds head start and went into another room which looked like one of the spare rooms and I hid in the closet. Wow how awkward is that I can just imagine someone saying 'Kimberley! Come out of the closet already!' After I saw him run past the room I snuck out of the closet and ran back into the game room. Everyone was laughing their ass off and when I ran back into the room they all shouted "SHE'S IN HERE!"

"Shit! Way to be a help guys!"

I'm back to running again and I almost got tackled but instead I slide tackled him and he flopped down onto the floor. That gave me just a slight advantage to start running again but he is a damned fast runner. He finally caught up to me and tackled me but I didn't really notice because I was laughing too hard. Harry stood up and offered to help me up but when i tried to take his hand a pain shot through my shoulder and I couldn't move my arm.

"Uhm, well this is awkward.. I think my shoulder has been dislocated.."

"Oh no. That's really bad."

When we didn't come back to the game room, everyone walked out and I was still sitting on the floor holding my right shoulder.

"River... Did you hurt yourself again?"

"NO! Harry did it." That got me a look from Harry but he knew it was a joke because he laughed.

"Yeah I fell and it is quite possible that my shoulder is dislocated."

"We have painkillers here somewhere.. I think."

"Don't worry Louis, if you pass me my purse I have stuff in there. Does anyone know how to put a shoulder back in place? I would do it myself bat as you can see I'm not quite in the position to fix my own shoulder."

"I got your purse River."

"Thanks River. I take it no one has dealt with a dislocated limb before, fun. Who is the least squeamish then?"

Everyone looks at Zayn.

"Alright just let me get some Advil first and I'll tell you how to help put my shoulder back in place." This will definitely be interesting. I fish through my purse, which I swear is like a Marry Poppins bag, and find my water and my Advil so I grab three and scarf 'em down.

"Okay Zayn, come here. You just support my shoulder and I will put it back in place but you can't move or I'll just end up hurting myself even more. Got it?"

He nods, obviously not too keen on placing my shoulder back in place so I count to three. "One, Two" Crack.

"Okidokie fixed! could I use a shirt or something for a makeshift sling please? Unless you have an actual sling."

Louis looks like he's gonna be sick, it's quite funny actually. I have always been able to get hurt and laugh about it when it happens., though I'm not laughing when it hurts the next day about ten times worse. Louis leaves the room and returns shortly after with a long-sleeved shirt.

"Alexes, could you help me tie this thing please?"

"Yeah sure!"

"What now? You guys were so much more fun before I got hurt." I laugh at myself because I know I won't be laughing once this Advil drains from my system.

"I think we should relax for a little bit Kim" Jenny throws out.

"None of you are any fun!"

"River, You need to be more careful. You're just a walking disaster aren't you?"

"I am, and I seem to be the only one who isn't affected by it. Just saying."

"Well, we are just going to sit and talk for now since Harry had to injure one of our guests" Liam says looking at Harry who is obviously upset.

"Harry, don't fret about it, I will be fine in no time. It's nothing I haven't done before, though usually it's while playing sports." That gets him to smile but he is still obviously not happy so I walk over to Jenny and whisper "Maybe you should go comfort him" She smiles and walks over to him to get him to relax a bit.

"It was her fault in the first place" She says to him.

"Hey! I said comfort him, not blame it on me!"

We all headed over to the big couch that sat in the entry room and plopped down, I realized plopping down wasn't the smartest idea since it made me cringe in pain. We sat and talked for a few hours and of course, Niall being Niall, said "I'm hungry!"

"There's a little cafe just a few minutes out, we can go there" I suggest.

"Sure! Whose driving?" Zayn says almost in unison with Niall.

Alexes offers "I can drive if one of you has a big enough car to fit us all into without crushing Kimberley."

"Liam's car is pretty big"

"Yeah, you can drive my car if you don't mind a small walk to get to it. It's parked a small distance away because my apartment is on the opposite side of the complex."

"Yeah no problem, let's go get the car. Everyone meet us out front in five."

She turns to look at me and I give her my "Get Some" look which makes her laugh like usual. They head out the door and i grab Jenny so we can go touch up our hair and make-up.

"Zayn, stop staring at yourself in the mirror! We need to touch up our make-up!" Jenny says in that tone of hers that can make anyone obey her.

"But my hair has to be perfect!"

"Come on it's already perfect, now move your ass out of our way!"

"Fine, fine little miss cripple"

"Ha ha you are hilarious. Now move"

We get to the mirror and start touch ups but I can't fix my eye liner with my left hand, damn it.

"Jenny, Would you mind assisting me with my eyeliner?"

"Sure thing."

We finish our touch ups just as everyone is gathering around the door to leave. Perfect timing on our part I believe, I think to myself with a smile. Louis waits for me by the door and asks with sincere concern "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I promise. I get hurt all the time it's nothing new to me haha."

This doesn't seem to reassure him because he just stands there looking from my face to my shoulder trying to determine if I'm bluffing or not. Ever since earlier when I yelled at him he has been more observant of my happiness, most likely to determine how genuine it may or may not be. I don't blame him because I know I would be doing the same thing.

"They're waiting for us" I finally say after standing there in silence for a few moments.

"Right. Let's go then." he gestures towards the door and I walk out and pause giving him a moment to shut and lock the door.

"I swear Louis, if you are in this dark mood for the rest of this damn night, I'm going to leave right now!"

That seemed to get his attention because he started to smile again.

"There you go. Smiling isn't too hard now is it?" I say jokingly as we walk up to the car.

"What took you guys so long? You were right behind us as we started walking out and then half way down the stairs I tried asking you a question and you weren't there" Niall directs to Louis but I answer and say "He was fixated on my injury, he thought it was worse than I was letting on."

"That's rubbish!" He shouts. "I was merely making sure she was alright!"

"That's a load of shit Lou" Niall said "Now get your ass into the car so we can go get food!"

Oh typical boys and their love for food, thank goodness I was so hungry and, wait a second, I have school tomorrow.

"Damn it. Why does today have to be Wednesday?"

"Just to spite you River" Alexes says with a hint of the smirk on her face playing into her voice as she teases me until I remind her "That means the three of us have school tomorrow and you two start with math"

"Fuck a duck!"

"Jenny!"

"Sorry, I couldn't help it. I really don't want to go to pre-calc tomorrow."

"You still need to watch your language" Harry said.

"I'm sorry Harry, it won't happen again. I promise" she says with a small smile tugging on the corners of her mouth.

"Okay, but it better not happen again"

They start talking adamantly in the seat in front of mine, Louis' and Zayn's. Niall felt out of the circle of conversation so he turned around backwards and started to talk with the three of us who were sitting in the back seat. Everyone talked up a storm until we pulled up outside The Saugus Cafe and Alexes said "Everyone shut up and get out" in a completely serious voice before breaking out into laughter.

I let everyone else get out before I even tried to climb out and to my surprise both Louis and Harry were waiting outside the car to help me out. Though being as stubborn as I am, I decided to wave off their offers of help and get out on my own.

"I'm good guys, I told you before I get hurt all the time and I can manage on my own the3 only thing I'll need help with is getting home tonight and to school tomorrow since I obviously can't drive." I say gesturing to my arm in its makeshift sling.

"I can pick you up for school tomorrow if you want me to" Louis offers.

"That's a conversation for later. For now, let's go get some grub!" I say with a smile.

We walk into the nearly empty cafe and are sat down at a table immediately. I feel bad for the two other people that are here for a meal and the wait-staff especially for serving a group of rowdy teens at eight o'clock at phone rings and I have to dismiss myself from the table in order to answer it.

"Yolah!"

"Where are you?"

"Oh hi dad, I'm at dinner with some friends. Why?"

"You never came home after school and never called to ask if you could leave. I want you home right now."

"I can't dad. I can't drive."

"Why the hell not? Have you been drinking young lady?"

"No! God No. I dislocated my shoulder while messing around with my friends."

"When you get home we are having a serious conversation!" *click*

He hung up on me, and he is pissed off; Brilliant, just brilliant. I get back to the table and everyone is eating and my food is sitting in front of where I am sitting. I return to my spot and begin eating my life away. There's two reactions when I am upset; I either eat a lot or not at all. In this case, it's a lot. We all finish eating and I inform them that I have to get home a.s.a.p. before my dad has a conniption fit.

"When we get back I'll drive you home and when we get there we can pick up our cars and head home."

"Thanks Jenny sounds like a plan"

We head out and take the same seats as last time but by this point the Advil is starting to wear off and I'm really feeling the pain in my shoulder. I reach into my purse to pull out the pills and the bottle isn't there. Great I must have left it at the apartment because I am intelligent like that. I just can't wait to fall asleep when I get home. To my surprise, I end up falling asleep in the car on the way back leaning on Louis' shoulder.

"Wake up sleepy head. It's time for you to go home."

I grumble because I really don't want to be woken up which makes everyone laugh at me. Awesome I am the butt of the joke because I fell asleep.

"My shoulder hurts like hell, for the record."

"Well when you get home you can take something to make it stop hurting. But first you need to get off Louis' shoulder and get in your own car." Zayn says in an almost mocking tone.

"Fine whatever." Before I got up I handed Louis my phone and said "Number. Now."

He handed me my phone back and helped me as I stumbled out of the car and over to my own ride. I almost went towards the driver side door when I remembered I couldn't drive so I walked to the opposite side and sat in the passenger seat.

Jenny got into the driver's seat and Alexes into the back and we drove off towards my house. The car ride was almost silent because we were all tired so when we pulled into my normal parking spot we mumbled our groggy goodbyes and went in our separate directions.

I walked inside, took some Advil, and went straight to sleep still in my clothes from the day. I was obviously too sleepy to talk so my dad refrained from lecturing me until the morning.


	5. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

(5:30 A.M)

My alarm is going off at full volume and I really don't want to get up. At least I don't have to use a makeshift sling today because I already have one. I stumble out of bed to shut off my alarm and grab some jeans and a T-shirt and head to the bathroom to shower. I looked at my shoulder in the mirror after I got out and conclude that it is indeed a beautiful purple-blue color and very swollen. It startles me when my phone goes off and I see a text that says 'Good Morning. Still need that ride to school?'

Must be Louis 'Yeah that would be awesome; I need to be out of here by seven fifteen. Do you remember how to get here?'

'Yeah… mostly.'

'Haha good, just don't be late or I will kill you '

'Yes ma'am.'

Alright, now time to eat food. What do we even have for breakfast in this house? I guess I'm making myself some oatmeal and tea just like every other morning. I make the food and sit down at the counter on one of the tall bar chairs so I can eat quickly and get my hair and makeup done. Once I finish eating, mom walks out of her bedroom. She obviously just woke up because she is headed straight for the coffee pot.

"Good morning Mom."

"Hmm? Oh yeah, morning Kimmy."

I head down to my room so I can start blow-drying my hair. When I get there I notice my desk drawer sitting wide open with my stuff falling out onto the floor. Thanks dad, that's exactly what I needed. When I start putting my things back, I notice my journal sitting open on one of the pages that I talked about a dream on. This dream that I wrote down is the reoccurring nightmare that I have been having for years. I close the book instantly and head back to my mirror where I do my hair and make-up. My eye-shadow is a bright red with glitter that I accented with charcoal black eye-liner and purple mascara. I am actually quite surprised I was able to do my makeup this morning since I have my injured shoulder. My makeup doesn't match my dark pink shirt or my bright blue pants but I am always somehow able to make my style unique without looking trashy.

Just then I hear a car honk outside so I put on my sling, grab my stuff and run out the door shouting goodbye to my parents on my way out.

"Hey there" I say leaping into the car.

"How's your shoulder today?"

"Purple and swollen but I'm sure I will live"

"If you don't I will be mad at you" he said jokingly.

"Thanks for picking me up, I really didn't want to have to be in the same car as my dad."

"Not a problem"

I start messing with the radio, all of the stations are morning talk shows, which I can't even begin to explain how much I hate, and I start to change it again when I hear the familiar voice of Niall.

"I don't know how I feel about that rumor to be honest. Where did you hear that?"

"Well we have a source that says they saw all of you moving into apartment complexes in Santa Clarita and just yesterday were visited by these three girls."

I am guessing that a picture is being shown since there was a pause of silence.

"Louis?" I ask.

"Yup?"

"Were you supposed to be on a talk show this morning?"

"Yes I was, but I would much rather help get you to school than talk about all the same stuff that every talk show host asks about."

"But you should still be there. It's a talk show"

"I have never really liked talking to all the reporters"

I can't believe this! Louis Tomlinson skipped an interview just to give me a ride to school. This makes me far happier than it should, but I can't let on how happy I am.

"Well thanks for the ride"

"Not a problem, talk to you later"

I got out of the car and grabbed my stuff. At least I wasn't late for school again today so there was no reason for me to rush to class. When I strolled inside I got attacked by a group of girls who looked to be freshmen.

"What the hell! Space please freshies!"

"But we saw you with One Direction on tv!"

"Shit…"

I text Louis and say, 'We were on tv! Lol'

He's driving so I put my phone away, not expecting a reply instantly. I manage to escape the crowd of girls and reach my class. I get inside and sit in my seat waiting for a very interesting day of school to start.

I will spare you the details of my day at school but I will tell you that I got asked by a few girls if they could get my autograph just because I spent time with One Direction. It was definitely a bizarre day that is for certain.

I waited for about ten minutes outside of school until my ride got here and when a car with blacked out windows pulled up, I figured it was my ride. The window rolled down and I saw Zayn in the driver's seat.

"Are you going to get in or not?"

"Yeah, I've had an odd day so far so I'm just a tad out of it."

I grabbed my bag and went to get in the car but Zayn decided to mess with me and lock the damn door.

"Funny. Unlock the door."

"It's not right to mess with a cripple you know."

"You're not technically crippled, just injured."

"Technically, by your own words as of yesterday, I am a cripple."

"Fine, you got me. Get in then."

I climbed in the car and Zayn was listening to a radio station I have never even heard before.

"What the hell are you listening to?"

"Music."

"This is not music, it's… it's I don't even know what to call it!"

"Wow, judgey much?"

"That's how I roll."

He speeds out of the parking lot and almost runs into someone.

"Should you even be driving? If I recall correctly you failed you driving test."

"Yeah but everyone else was busy so Louis trusted me with your life."

"Wonderful."

"So you said you had an odd day today at school. What happened?"

"Some freshman girls swarmed me and a few even asked for my autograph just because I know you guys."

"Oh, it's not that unusual. You will get used to it soon enough."

"Hm, true I just was not expecting it at all."

"By the way, I remember Louis saying something about you singing for us."

"Damn, I hoped you guys would forget…"

"Why would you want us to forget?"

"Because I don't want to make a total fool of myself."

"Wimp!" He shouted jokingly.

"Hey mister prima donna, don't be judging me."

We both laughed and we pulled up to the apartments.

"Louis wanted you to meet him because he said he owes you a favor."

"Got it, that makes sense enough to me."


	6. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

I get out of the car and head towards the elevator so that I don't have to walk up the couple flights of stairs. I get to the door and I can hear Harry and Louis laughing, no doubt messing around as usual. I knock and let myself in since he knew I would be coming over.

"Hello ladies" I say to them which makes them pause and stare at me.

"Did you seriously just call us ladies?"

"Uh yeah, I did actually. What are you gonna do about it? You can't tackle me again."

"You are evil, do you know that?" Harry asks.

"Yeah, and I am proud of it!" I say with a smile.

"Any-who, Louis you wanted me here?"

"Yeah, we need to get crackin' on that song."

"Ohhh, you guys are writing a song?"

"Yes Harry we are." I told him.

"Why?"

"Harry, I swear if you start doing that little kid thing again I will not hug you for a week!" Louis shouted. I was laughing so hard but Harry seemed to be affected by it immediately and just stood there with a frown on his lips.

"Okay Louis, let's go work on that song then."

"Right this way madam." He says leading me towards a room that is set up like a recording studio.

"Wow, this place is great."

"Thanks" he says and then laughs. He always laughs at me when I get amazed by something that seems so regular and simple to him now. I wish I could live in a place as luxurious as this, with so many rooms that can be used for anything I could ever imagine. I am so glad he is helping me with this song; I really think it will be the best song I've ever written considering that I'm writing it with an international star.

"Alright what are you looking for in a song? what sort of style do you sing?" he asks me.

"I sing alternative rock and sometimes slightly pop-ish."

"Okay, that's simple enough. Now what sort of message do you want in the song?"

"Usually when I write it just flows naturally. Any good song writes itself."

"Well aren't you the little philosopher now." Louis said jokingly.

"I have my moments" We both started laughing and joking around for a short time until we realized that we had gotten way off track.

"Wow, we really need to get to work on this thing if we want to have it done in time for my appointment with the talent agency."

We sat there in silence for a few minutes and then I grabbed the pen and paper and began scrawling down a few lines of lyrics with the notes above the words. I took the paper over to the piano, removed my sling, and began playing the tune I imagined in my mind while I was writing. In the middle of playing my phone starts singing my Barbie Girl ringtone once again so I answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Kimberley Olewine?"

"It is, and you are?"

"I am with the talent agency. wanted to call to inform you that our agents are no longer looking for a young female voice so your audition has been cancelled."

"Are you kidding me?" I was enraged. How could they do this to me when I'm so close to where I want to be?

"I am sorry but it is true. Good luck." And she hung up. Just like that my dreams are crushed again. I dropped my phone in shock and just stood there frozen. I am so pissed off right now but the shock is stronger so instead of fuming, I am frozen in place.

"Who was that?" Louis asked me after I stood there for a while.

"It was the talent agency. They cancelled my audition. Said they don't want my voice style anymore."

"That's rubbish!"

"Story of my life."

"Well you shouldn't have to deal with that, it's ridiculous."

"Relax, it's their loss more than it is mine." I tried to smile but it was more of a grimace because I was obviously unhappy with the events that had just unfolded. I sit back down onto the piano bench and begin to play the song I had began writing just a few minutes ago. Louis decides to join me on the bench and play a rendition of the melody beautifully. We sit there and play for a little while until I decide to add more lyrics to the song and place the newly added piano parts to the song. When I begin to play again I prepare myself to sing what I have written when Liam walks right in and says, "I thought I heard someone playing the piano in here."

"Gee thanks for walking right it, there is something called knocking. You know that right?" I tease. Before anyone can say anything else a montage of people crowd into the room. Of course the crowd is just all of the guys but the room was rather small so it definitely felt cramped.

"Alrightie I need to get out of this room before I freak out. Too many people cramped into a tiny room." I say as I squeeze my way past the guys.

I grab my purse and pull out my song book and think to myself, 'I really need to find a better hiding place for this thing. One where no one will find it and destroy it or steal my ideas.' I think of all the possible hiding places and come up blank. All they guys are still in the hall messing around so I have a few more moments of silence to think. What if I hid it here? Louis wouldn't steal any of my ideas, he has plenty of his own brilliant songs as it is. Perfect, I'll ask Louis to hold onto it for me because even though we haven't known each other very long I know I can trust him.

Niall sprints into the front room and falls over the back of the couch and into a sitting position. He is followed by Liam and Zayn then Louis giving Harry a piggy back ride. That is definitely a sight to see. I take out my phone and snap a picture of Louis and Harry and send it to Jenny because I know she will appreciate it.

Jenny texts back instantly and says ' WHY AM I NOT THERE RIGHT NOW?'

"Hey guys, Can I have Jenny and Alexes come over?"

"Sure!" Harry answered almost too quickly. We can all see how much he is into Jenny, at least when she doesn't curse. so I send a text to both of them saying 'Come over to the guys' apartment!' They should be here shortly so while I'm still sitting down I put my book back into my purse and grab some more Advil for my shoulder before I put my purse back on the table.

"So what were you playing on the piano?" Liam asked me as he sat down on the couch to my left.

"A new song that Louis is helping me write; I was going to use it for an audition but they called me and told me they are no longer looking for a young female voice."

"What? That is ridiculous."

" Agreed!" Niall said out of nowhere. I had totally forgotten he had sat down on the couch to my right only minutes ago.

"If you were writing a new song, then why didn't I hear any singing?" asked Liam.

"Well I was actually about to start singing until you burst through the door and interrupted my playing." I teased.

"Then go back in there and play your new song!" Liam and Niall almost shouted in unison.

"Calm down guys, it's not like I'm going to forget it. Besides, my shoulder needs a break from playing and writing."

"Fine, but before you leave today you are playing your song."

I nodded but I was nervous still, despite the fact that I was told by many people how I had talent. Now I'm all self-conscious, brilliant! I just hope that I don't majorly screw this up; these boys can really help me if I am truly good enough. There's a knock on the door and Harry and Louis race for the door Louis face-planting into the door and Harry running right into Louis' back. When they opened the door Jenny and Alexes were standing there talking.

"Hey guys, how are you?" Jenny asked them both but looked directly at Harry as she said it.

"I'm good, glad that you guys could come hang out again." Harry said smiling at Jenny.

"JENNY!" I shouted trying to break her trance.

"What?"

"Hi." I just grinned because I could tell she didn't appreciate me distracting her from her man. To be honest, we all know that they will get together sooner or later; most likely sooner. They walk inside and Alexes walks straight towards Liam, because that wasn't obvious. I start laughing at myself and I get a strange look from Niall and Zayn.

"Just thinking funny thoughts." I say before beginning to laugh again.

"Care to share those funny thoughts?" Louis asked from behind me.

"I'm sure you would like to know." Niall says.

"I would but I'm sure that Alexes and Jenny wouldn't be too happy if I did." Saying that won me a glare from Jenny and a chuckle from Alexes, score.

Out of nowhere, Liam says "Well Kimberley still needs to play that song she was writing earlier like she promised me she would."

"I made no such promise!"

"Oh come on River, I think you did and you just don't want to play it." Alexes interjects.

"You're damn right I don't want to. It's not even done yet, so there's no point in playing it. Sorry maybe another time." I had hoped that would get me off the hook but I know it would never suffice. Louis pat me on the head and said "It's okay love, we know you're a chicken."

That made me laugh but I was definitely offended. No one is allowed to call me a chicken; well to be honest no one ever has so I guess that statement would be irrelevant.

"Fine I'll play it, but you have to play with me because you added a part to it too and I never got the chance to write it down."

"Okay, let's go play it now then!"

"Really? Why right now?"

"Because if we don't Harry and Jenny won't be on this planet in order to hear it."

"That's true, come along gang!"

We skip down the hall towards the music room and before entry I turn to everyone and say, "Beware, if you enter this room you may never come back out alive."

"Just get on with the song" Zayn said.

"Fine, fine. Geez, patience is a virtue."

I walk in the room with Louis on my heels and we take a seat on the piano bench. I shrug the sling off of my arm and adjust the paper with the notes and lyrics on it. I crack my fingers and begin to play. After the first few notes Louis joined in and after the first two bars of introduction I began to sing.

_"Does any body care?_

_ Am I in this all alone? _

_I just need a fiend and that's what I thought you were._

_At night I sit and wish that I had a friend to love me like I do in my dreams._

_Are you listening to me tonight?_

_Are you finally here to care?_

_But it's not you it never was._

_I have someone here who cares now, she knows me for who I am._

_She cares for me like you never would._

_She loves me like only a true friend could so I'm done with you tonight._

_The night you betrayed me was the day I gave up on life. I fell apart and it's all thanks to you._

_You don't belong in my life, you never even cared if I was okay._

_Tell me now, was taking my trust all just some filthy game to you?_

_I thought I could trust you, I should have known better._

_But it's not you it never was._

_I have someone here who cares now, she knows me for who I am._

_She cares for me like you never would._

_She loves me like only a true friend could so I'm done with you tonight._

_I'm just so done with you here, tonight._

_I've had my fair share of your games and your lies._

_Tonight it's my turn to win and there's no pulling me back to the starting line._

_I've found the love that has saved my life and I'm done with you for good."_

When the song was over the room was silent which worried me more than I thought it would. I knew it, I suck and they're going to burst into laughter any minute. I leaked the lyrics from true feelings in my heart and they are going to laugh at me; teaches me to never write about my past experiences with instead of laughing like I fully expected them to, I hear Niall say "Wow that was great." That is the exact opposite reaction I was expecting to get from them.

Harry chimed in "Did you write that all by yourself? Because that is nothing that Louis would ever write, it's too good."

That made me laugh and apparently the comment offended Louis because he turned around and punched Harry.

"I wrote the lyrics and the main melody but the brilliant harmony was all Louis." I told Harry to redeem the low shot on Louis' ego. As soon as I said that, Louis' face lit up.

"See Harry! I'm not useless" Louis says with extreme enthusiasm.

"Can we have some food now?" Niall asks out of nowhere.

"Well is anyone else hungry?" Alexes asks.

"Let's be real here, Niall can eat enough for all of us." I say getting a few laughs out of everyone.

"I don't know Kim, you eat an awful lot." Jenny states.

"However true that may be, I'm starving. Let's get something to eat." Liam interjects.

"Where shall we go then?" I ask everyone.

"Where's a good Italian place?" inquires Zayn.

"I don't know what you consider good Italian but at Macaroni Grill there's paper on the table and crayons so we can draw on the tables!" I say excitedly.

"TO MACARONI GRILL!" Niall shouts.

We head out the door of the apartment and on the way out I glanced over and saw Harry reach for Jenny's hand.

"Awwww how cute!" I say, making Jenny give me the 'shut up' look.

Oh, the looks that Jenny gives me. We get to the car and it was voted that I will be the one driving us to dinner. I hop in the front seat and Niall calls shotgun and forces Louis to sit with the love birds in the back. Louis decides that if he has to sit in the back he's going to sit in the middle between Harry and Jenny. The entire ride to dinner Louis was hugging on Harry and deliberately smiling at Jenny while doing so.

"Did you not like the back seat last time we went to dinner?" I asked Niall

"Not at all, all I could hear was Harry and Jenny flirting it up the entire time."

"That's so true, but we are just going to have to get used to it."

"Hey! It's not that bad." Jenny practically shouts from the back seat.

"Sure Jenny, if you say so." I say.

Zayn shouts from the back seat "Help me! I'm suffocating from all of Liam's kindness."

"Hey that's mean. He's being a perfect gentleman." Niall says in a mock girly voice.

"Stop mocking people Niall." Alexes says.

"Oh River, be a good sport, it's all in jest." I say.

"If I were sitting closer to the front I would punch you" Alexes tells me.

"No harming the driver silly" I say sticking my tongue out at her in the rear-view mirror.

"You would do the same if the situation was swapped." She replies.

"Hm, I guess that is true. Oh well" I say with a smile.

"Do you want me to punch her for you?" Louis asks from the back seat.

"Please!" Alexes says.

"If you touch me I'll send Niall into the back seat to beat you up" I say laughing.

"Right, like I couldn't take him." Louis says cockily.

"You wanna battle Tommo?" Niall challenges.

"You're on! Time and place, tell me and I'll be there."

"Today, after we get back from dinner." Niall says

"Ohh today is a bad day for me, Let me check my calendar and I'll tell you when I'm free. Does that work for you?"

We all started laughing at Louis and Niall's exchange. As we pull up to the restaurant I tell everyone, "Everyone out, it's food time!"

We all climb out and head for the front door; I really hope that there aren't too many people who will recognize the guys. When we walk in the host welcomes us and asks "How many tonight?"

"Eight please" I say.

"It will be just one moment" the host tells us.

"Thanks"

"Okidokie guys, there are crayons and paper on these tables; I suggest a huge doodle brawl!" I say almost too excitedly.

"Yeah!" The guys all say in unison.

When we get seated we immediately reach for our favorite color crayon and I fight to get the blue crayon from Niall. It was a success! I got the blue crayon and I began a doodle brawl by drawing an alien spaceship. Jenny doodles hearts with the occasional penguin holding a balloon. Next to her, Harry scribbles over her hearts, making them practically unrecognizable. Jenny pouts, arms crossed around her chest. Alexes tries to draw The Serenity but fails which makes me laugh at her.

"You don't doodle complex transport ships silly." I say to her

"I can try!"

"And fail." I finish the sentence for her most likely not in the direction she was going with it.

The waitress walks over to the table and is a little confused when she sees the table cleared of everything and all of us drawing away with crayons.

"Hello everyone, my name is Brittany and I will be your waitress for the night. Can I start you guys off with something to drink?"

We all order our drinks and ask for an order of the stuffed mushrooms to share. After she walks away we all decide we should probably decide what we want to eat before we start to draw again except for Jenny, she says "I always know what I want from here because I always get the same thing."

"Well I personally like to try something new every time I go somewhere." I say.

"It's called the Macaroni Grill but I don't see any macaroni and cheese on this menu!" Exclaims Louis.

"Louis my dear, you are very random." I say to him while he still frantically searches the menu for macaroni and cheese.

"Try the kids menu Lou" Zayn says

"Good idea, though it probably won't be enough food."

"Then just ask them for a big bowl of it" I say attempting to solve the problem.

"But what if they make it wrong?" He asks.

"Then we will send Harry into the kitchen to make you your macaroni; now hush and continue doodling." I say getting a few chuckles from the boys.

Once we all decided we began to draw again and our drinks and appetizer were brought to us. We were talking so loud, we didn't notice when she tried to ask us if we were ready to order so what she did surprised me. She walked up to Niall who was being the loudest and put her hand over his mouth so he would stop talking. The look on his face was priceless but it was so unexpected that no one said anything.

"Well, now that you are all listening; are you all ready to order?"

"Yeah, I think so." I replied. We all placed our order and once she walked away, we all burst out into mad laughter. I was laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe. Alexes was sitting to my left and she noticed how hard I was laughing so she decided that it was necessary to turn to me, grab my shoulders and yell "Breathe River; breathe!"

It was rather bizarre and I was definitely not expecting her to react that way but she did and that only made us all laugh harder. Our food was served and we were all rather silent while we stuffed our faces when Jenny says, "This pasta is the !"

"Jenny." Alexes says.

"Yeah?"

"You are so weird."

"I know, I just can't help it sometimes."

"I'm the same way Jenny!" I say out of the blue, knowing that I wasn't initially involved in their conversation.

We ate and joked around for a bit longer and soon it was 8 O'clock.

"Kim, Alexes. You two are coming to my house tonight okay? Okay." Jenny says to us.

"Are we invited?" Asks Harry, Louis, and Liam.

"It's a girls night fellas, sorry." Jenny says looking mostly at Harry because we all know how much she would love to have him come over and stay the night with her.


	7. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

Alexes, Jenny, and I were sitting in Jenny's room on her bed discussing what we would do.

"What can we do for a girls night if we aren't normal girls. We don't do makeovers, nails, etcetera." I say to my two friends.

"We could go to the park and play soccer" Jenny suggests.

"Because I'm so good at soccer" Alexes replies sarcastically.

"You can be a really bad goalie" I say just as sarcastically with a touch of truth behind it.

"It'll be fun, we can take Lucy over and play One Direction!" Jenny says excitedly.

"Let's do it!" I say just a little too loudly for how late it is.

"Shhhh, we need to sneak out or else my dad won't let us go" Jenny says.

"You got it dude" I whisper.

The three of us sneak downstairs quietly and quickly run out the front door. Jenny runs to the side of her house and grabs a soccer ball then swiftly runs back to the car.

"Alright let's go Lucy" Jenny says to her car as she starts the engine and we pull out of the driveway.

We get half way to the park when Lucy stalls and Jenny says, "Lucy, you've got some esplainin' to doo."

"Now what Jenny?" I ask.

"We could call someone" Alexes suggests.

"Like who?" Jenny and I both ask at the same time.

"Oh idea! What about the guys?" I suggest.

"But it's supposed to be a girls' night" Jenny whines.

"We both know how much you want to see Harry" Alexes says.

"You're one to talk, I can see how into Liam you are" I say with a smirk.

"Well I guess we are calling the guys" Jenny says trying to frown determined to convince us that she wants it to just be the three of us. She isn't very good at hiding her smile and her cheery voice when she calls Harry though.

"She loves you Harry!" Alexes and I shout as she is talking to him on the phone. I know we are going to get it when she hangs up. When she finishes talking to him she says, I told him to bring Liam and Louis but really guys? What the hell?"

"Sorry, we couldn't help it." Alexes says.

"Don't apologize, she would do the same thing and she knows it" I say laughing.

"Not true!" Jenny shouts.

About ten minutes pass and then the guys pull up in their car.

"Someone called for help?" Harry says then winks at Jenny.

"Lucy sorta had some issues; she's having a fit and won't start back up." I say to the guys.

Meanwhile Jenny is smiling at Harry and I swear they are having a mental conversation through their eyes. I looked over towards Alexes to see her staring at a smiling Liam and doing the same thing. What is with all these mental conversations? Oh well.

"Louis, since you're the only sane one left out of your friends here, come help me with Lucy." I say to him.

"Alright then" he replies hopping out of the car.

I pop up the hood of the car to see if there is any noticeable damage to the engine. "I think she just needs a jump" I tell him. He walks back to the car and brings it over as I pull out the jumper cables and connect them to the car battery. I connect the other end of the cables to the other car battery and get in the car to rev the engine. It takes three tries before we can get the car running and when it turns on, the check engine light comes on.

"Jenny!" I yell, "You need to take your car to the mechanic tomorrow!"

"Why?" she asks me.

"The check engine light came on; best to get it looked at than to have it die on you in the middle of the freeway one day."

"Okay, is she at least working enough for us to get to the park?" She asks.

"Yes. She is alive." I reply

"Then let's go!" She yells, obviously very excited to go play soccer.

"Soccer time!" I yell running for the car.

"Can the guys come?" Alexes asks Jenny and me.

Jenny and I pause and look at each other before saying "Boys versus girls game!"

We all get into our respective cars and Jenny leads the rest of the way to the park. We all arrive and pile out of the cars. I grab the soccer ball and run towards the soccer field shouting "I call forward!"

Jenny still wants to play her music from the car but isn't sure if she should still blast One Direction. She decides against it and settles with a regular radio station. She walks over to the field with Alexes and we decide which positions we all take. I take forward like I called initially, Alexes takes goalie, and Jenny is halfback so that she can defend and attack.

The boys are gathered on the opposite end of the field determining their positions at the same time. Once our team decides, we grab our jackets and set up goal boundaries and determine that it doesn't count as a goal if it is higher than the reach of the goal keeper. On the other team, Harry and Louis shared the field as co-halfbacks and Liam is in the goal.

We start the game and Jenny and I start out kicking off. I tap the ball to Jenny and run around to the edge of off-sides and have Jenny kick the ball to me. Louis tries to steal the ball but I get to it first and take the ball down the field with Louis close behind me. He catches up to me and we fight for the ball. Louis manages to take the ball from me so I try to keep up with him in order to get it back but he and Harry have already planned out how to sneak a goal past us. They manage to score on Alexes because she has no clue what she is doing and ducks with a squeal when the ball comes towards her. I laugh t Alexes but I'm determined to get at least two goals so that we can win this game. I admit that Louis is a difficult opponent but if I make the right moves I can possibly get the ball past Louis and Harry and to the goal; I'll improvise from there. Before the kick-off, I plan with Jenny and tell Alexes a few tricks of how to catch the ball as keeper. Once we finish planning, we execute our plan and it works. Now that I know a strategy, I can play off of that but I have to anticipate their plans so they can't get a lead on us.

We continue playing for a while until people start to tire out; I still want to play because I'm used to playing for a few hours. Harry, Jenny, Liam and Alexes decide to sit down and talk while I play one-on-one soccer against Louis. It's about eleven O'clock when Louis and I decide to stop playing and join the others at the playground. Me being me, I race for the open swing and leap on belly-down. I swing like superman on the swing for a little while and talk with all my friends at the same time.

"You know we won that game" Louis says boastfully.

"I want a re-match!" I shout at him, I really hate losing especially soccer games.

I stopped swinging and stood up so that I could sit normally on the swing but when I went to sit, Alexes had moved the swing so I fell to the ground.

"Owie! Son of a….. Wow that hurt!" I shouted.

I just sat on the ground for a little while, continuing the conversation like nothing had ever happened. We sit and talk for a while then decide to play on the play-set. I feel like such a little kid but I love it.

I initiate a game of tag by running up to Jenny, tapping her and screaming "You're it!"

She quickly turns and smacks Harry and runs away saying "Tag!"

We run around the playground for a good hour playing tag when we decide it was probably time to calm back down. I had gotten really hungry from running around so I suggested, "Why don't we got to a fast-food place and get a quick midnight snack?"

"Sounds good, I'm starved from all this messing about" Liam says.

"We should all take our car so we don't have to worry about Jenny's breaking down again." suggests Harry. We all walk over to the cars and we lock Jenny's car after putting the ball and jackets back in the back seat then get into the boys' car. I asked everyone, "What do you guys want to eat? I'm in the mood for a burger myself to be honest."

"We can go to In-N-Out!" Jenny says.

"Sure, why not." The guys agree. "But I'm going to need directions of how to get there." Harry said since he decided he wanted to drive instead of Louis.

"I know where it is, I've gone there often enough" Jenny says.

While we were on our way to get food, Alexes randomly thinks out loud saying "What am I supposed to get at a burger place?"

"A burger obviously" Liam says.

"But I'm a vegetarian, so I kind of can't." She replies. All three of the guys gasp in surprise at the statement.

"But how can you even do that? Is it even possible to live without meat?" Louis asks her.

"Apparently it is; I didn't think it was possible when she first told me either" I told him.

We spend the entire car ride discussing how impossible it would be to be a vegetarian for the rest of us. Alexes tried to explain to us why she made her decision to become vegetarian but none of us could really understand why anyone would choose that life style.

"We aren't trying to bag on you, we just don't get it." I tell her.

"I understand, it's mostly funny listening to you guys try and decide how possible or not it would be for you.

"We have arrived" Harry announces our group of very chatty people.

"Finally!" I yell.

We once again file out of the car and head for the front door. Boy are the workers going to love serving a group of rowdy young adults at midnight. We walk up to the counter and stare at the menu when I make a sudden realization, "You can get a grilled cheese Alexes!"

"I guess that will be okay, I'm not that hungry anyways." She says mostly to herself but still loud enough for me to hear. We all order and the guys insisted on paying for all of our stuff as a treat. All our meals came out after a few minutes because they needed to cook more food after the dinner rush a few hours earlier. I got the double-double animal style and an order of animal style fries which Jenny called a heart attack because of how fattening the meal was. The guys realized I was real competition in the eating category and I said, "If you think I eat a lot now, think of how much I eat regularly when it's not the middle of the night."

All the guys didn't know what animal style was but only Louis and Harry decided to try it. Liam decided to go with a regular cheeseburger and Jenny got a hamburger no tomato (but the specifics don't really matter). I made a bet with Louis that I could finish all my food before he could and he accepted. We ate rather quickly after I allowed a few small bites to actually get the taste of the burger. As much as I love In-N-Out, I love competing more; everything I do, I have to turn it into a competition somehow.

It was a tie all the way to the last few fries, we were both getting full but we had to finish this race. I took my last handful of fries at the same time he did and now it was a race to whoever swallowed first. I won by one chew, but I won none the less.

"That's not cool!" Louis shouted, with an obviously hurt ego that he lost a food eating contest to a girl.

"Actually it was very entertaining" Liam said, still only half way through his burger.

Alexes was laughing at us because apparently a food eating contest between Louis and me was hilarious.

As I wipe the last bits of animal fries of my face, I look over to Jenny, seemingly in a trance, staring at her plate of food.

"Jenny? Are you gonna eat the food or just stare at it?" I call, breaking her trance.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, just a trance." She replies, blushing.

Next to her, Harry throws a fry and hits Louis smack in the face, sauce oozing down his chiseled jaw. Oh, yes. Everyone loves a good food fight, and these boys were no exception. Suddenly, a full on food fight erupts. Jenny and Alexes, the pristine ladies, grip their trays, holding them in front of their faces. I proceeded in throwing bits of my food across the table at Louis and Liam, when suddenly I watch as a bit of Louis's food flies and lodges itself in Harry's hair.

"Louis! Gosh darn it! Not the hair!" Harry whines, glaring at him in a fake way.

"Oh shhh," replies Louis, "It was purely accidental."

Jenny puts her arm around Harry, who is still fake glaring. She smiles at him and we all watch as his façade melts away into a smile.

"Well, let's finish eating and the girls and I will head back to Jenny's house!" I say, impatient and over with the grotesque mushiness happening next to me. We all nod and continue eating, with the occasional squeal from a punk tween in the booth next to us. Each time she squeals, a giggle erupts from each of us.

Finally, we all finished eating and as we walk to the car, Louis grabs my arm and pulls me aside. "I need to talk to you, now!" he frantically whispers, obviously uncomfortable.

I looked at him cautiously, worried about what he was about to tell me.

"Look, management is making Harry date Aurora Green, this British dancer who is trying to make it big. It is only for the press. To be honest, he kind of detests her. He doesn't want Jenny to know about Aurora, because he doesn't want to ruin things with her. I am worried that our little shindig tonight might get into the news, so you have to be prepared for what is to come. You can't tell Jenny about this; Harry would kill me!"

Shit. What am I supposed to do now? My loyalty to Jenny is strong, but I don't want to lose Louis or Harry's trust. I will have to follow what Louis tells me. Jenny doesn't have to know that I had any knowledge of what was going on, but she will be crushed!

"Well if your worries really do become a reality, then she will find out soon enough, and we will figure out what to do then," I whisper to him, keeping calm.

Together, we return to the group subtly, acting as though nothing major had just happened. We both knew, however, that something big was happening, and we couldn't do anything to fix it.

On the way back to Jenny's, Liam calls out, "You know we won that football game!" His random statement broke the serious air in the car, and suddenly, we all burst out laughing.

"We will agree to disagree," says Alexes, a huge playful grin painted across her face.

When we reach our destination, we all pile out of the huge Suburban. Louis grabs my hand once again, and I anxiously turn to him. "She can't know." Concern is clear on his face. I nod and turn to get out of the passenger seat, gulping from worry.

Outside of the vehicle, Harry hugs Jenny goodbye, holding her for slightly longer than usual. I knew, but I shrugged it off, winking at Alexes as we looked at each other. Alexes' eyes read, "Ooh La La!" At that, I laughed.

"Okay, well we should probably get to her room before Jenny's dad figures out we aren't there!" I call. It didn't stop them. It was as if he was hugging her for the last time, and she seemed to know it, until she finally whispers, "Harry, you can let go now. I will talk to you tomorrow." She smiles, and my chest hurts, knowing that she is so unaware, unlike her usual awareness.

Giggling, Alexes and Jenny skip up the steps and I follow behind, looking back at the car. Once at the top, the two giddy girls wave goodbye, their huge smiles illuminating the night.

Back in Jenny's room, we all get in our pajamas. Jenny flaunts her tight fitting navy blue tank top, plaid shorts, and purple bunny slippers. I rest on the bed, my black t shirt seeming to suffocate me. Alexes' pink satin spaghetti-strap top and matching shorts accented her dancer body, causing Jenny and I to yell, "Boo, get out of here with your disgusting dancer body." To this Alexes sticks her tongue out, unfazed by our jaunts.

"There are plenty who find this disgusting dancer body attractive!" she retorts, and I know she's thinking of Liam.

"Like Liam?" I say, in turn getting punched by Alexes.

"Hey," I protest, "you know it's true."

"We should have a party!" Jenny announces out of the blue, and Alexes and I agree with an emphatic, "Yes!" Soon the details are being planned out, and we're all giving our input on who to invite. The guys are an obvious invite, because they're awesome to hang out with and, oh yeah, _famous. _Alexes' boyfriend is another obvious invite, so all that's left to decide which friends to invite.

"This should be a swim party! Then Alexes can show off her disgusting dancer body," says Jenny, earning herself a glare. We both agree, and a swim party it is. Soon we have a list of people created, and all that's left is to hand out invitations at some point. Oh, and we should probably get permission to even have the party.

"This will rock. And the guys will be there," says Jenny dreamily. It's not hard to guess that when she says "the guys" she really means Harry, so Alexes interrupts, "You mean Harry."

"Shut up!" Jenny exclaims, blushing furiously. The door creaks open and Jenny's mom peers around the corner at us.

"Girls, do you have any idea what time it is? If you don't get some sleep now, you aren't going to get any at all."

"Sorry mom," says Jenny, "I guess we'll start settling down.

"Good. Don't wake me up again," says Jenny's mom with a slight smile. I stretch out on the floor and look up and my two friends.

"I guess that's our cue to go to sleep," I say.


	8. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

I wake up to the noise of our three phones going off simultaneously. What on earth is going on? I pick up my phone and open the ten plus messages, all from Louis and all saying the same thing.

'I think you should turn on the TV. TMZ, to be specific.'

'okay. Why, what's going on?'

'I think you need to find that out yourselves…'

I glance over and Jenny and Alexes, who are both engaged in similar conversations.

"TMZ?" I ask, and they nod. Groggily, we make our way down the spiral staircase, and Jenny claims control of the remote before we even hit the living room. We turn on the TV and when we finally find the right channel, the three of us stare in horror. An announcer appears, looking calm and serene as she introduces the latest story.

"Members of popular British boy-band One Direction were seen leaving their flat around midnight last night. It turns out they were meeting three teenage girls. Was it just a night with friends, or was it something more…"

The screen fades to black and soon pictures of all kinds appear. There's one of my eating contest with Louis, of all of us playing soccer, and even one of Alexes leaning on Liam. When the pictures are done flashing by, none of us can tear our eyes away as a video is shown…taken outside Jenny's house.

Outside of the vehicle, Harry hugs Jenny goodbye, holding her for slightly longer than usual. I shrug it off and laugh at Alexes' provocative expression.

"Okay, well we should probably get to her room before Jenny's dad figures out we aren't there!" I call. It didn't stop them. It was as if he was hugging her for the last time, and she seemed to know it, until she finally whispers, "Harry, you can let go now. I will talk to you tomorrow." Jenny smiles and skips to join us.

The video fades out and is replaced by the announcer.

"What were the band members doing with these three All-American young girls? There is no news yet on how Harry's girlfriend is taking this. Is he cheating? Or was he just being his flirtatious self? However, it looks like Louis and Liam have found prospective future girlfriends."

My knees shaking, I quickly turn the TV off and glance at Jenny. She had stopped listening at the word "girlfriend" and was sitting down now, looking absolutely crushed. I don't know what to do, I really don't. I want more than anything to tell her what I know, to assure it's not real, that everything would work out. But I couldn't betray Louis' trust, a fact that was hurting all of us at the moment.

"Shit…" I say mostly to myself. Alexes has her arms wrapped around Jenny, and she's staring at the dark television screen furiously. In fact, she's shaking with all the emotion that's rocking through her. This is a very bad sign. I know Alexes very well, and when she gets like this she often does things she regrets. She's a very emotional person, and often lets this get the better of her.

"How could he? To lead Jenny on like that, what a jerk," she says, anger piercing every word that she speaks. Nothing upsets Alexes more than one someone hurts someone else. She's very protective of her friends. I wince, because I know she'll stop at nothing to get Harry back for this, even though it wasn't what she thought.

"This can't be real," says Jenny in a daze, her eyes not really in the room with us. "It just seems so…unreal. He was so sweet...and kind…" She looks at me imploringly, and it breaks my heart. "Kim, how can this be happening?"

"I..." I stutter. What could I say? Did I betray Louis to comfort Jenny, who had helped me through so much? Or did I keep quiet and let whatever happened, happen?

"What do we do now?" asks Alexes, still struggling to keep her emotions under control. I can tell it pains her, but she's doing it for Jenny's sake so I don't say anything.

"I don't know. I don't know what we do. I know this is hard for you Jenny, believe me. But we have to think about how this is going to affect us on Monday when we go back to school. What about Alexes' boyfriend? What will he think?" At that, Alexes pretty much sinks to her knees. I stare at her; she's usually much better at controlling herself.

"Fuck," she says, and this only worries me more. Alexes isn't one to swear, she has the cleanest language of all three of us. As if on cue, Alexes' phone rings with her boyfriend's ringtone. She answers it, looking like a scared puppy. I watch as he face goes from scared to defeated. She hangs up the phone and doesn't move, letting the phone drop to the floor. What is happening to my friends?

Alexes is on the verge of tears and I'm too afraid to ask her what has happened because I know what the answer will be. At that moment my phone goes off and it's a text from Louis saying 'How are they taking it?' I reply with a single word 'Bad' and that's exactly what it is. His next text reads 'I'm coming over, but just me so they don't have to freak out and if they don't want to talk to me then I'll just talk to you outside. This will get fixed, I promise.' I feel so crushed, for my friends; all of them boys included.

The three of us sit in silence until I finally say, "I'm sure the Harry thing is a huge misunderstanding. He can't really have a girlfriend because if he did he should have had the guts to tell you rather than lead you on." At first Jenny is silent but she nods and Alexes says "Let's hope for his sake that this is a misunderstanding because if it's not" and I cut her off "Hey, don't get too angry right yet. Not until you know the whole story. Louis is on his way over right now. He said he understands if you guys don't want to talk to him but I need to talk to him so I know what the hell is going on okay?"

Louis arrives shortly after and I realize I'm still in my pajamas... wonderful. I go to the door and let him in because I don't want to be outside in boxer shorts where people can see me. "This better be good" Alexes says glaring at Louis. "Let's at least give him a chance to talk before we judge okay?" I say to the girls. I can tell by the looks on their faces that it's too late and they are already judging and are not happy in the slightest. Louis tries to relieve the tension by commenting on my clothing choice "Loving the boxers by the way" but the attempt at humor was only getting him impatient looks from Alexes and Jenny. Okay, this is going to be so awkward and he better not mention that I know what's going on because they will kill me if they find out that I knew all along and I didn't say anything.

"Alright, please don't hate us for not saying anything about this to you Jenny. Harry didn't want to say anything because he didn't want to ruin things with you." He paused to look over at me for reassurance to continue. Jenny was looking somehow angrier than she had just moments ago so Louis continued. "Harry isn't really in a relationship with Aurora; it' something management set up as a form of publicity for her as a deal to her managers. She's a new up and coming dancer and needed some major publicity. To be completely honest Harry rather dislikes her and were it up to him, he would have ended it before it even started." Jenny seemed a little less tense but I could tell she wasn't fully buying it. "Do you expect me to believe you?" She asks Louis, obviously angered.

I knew neither of them would buy it without proof so I played into it by saying to Louis, "If that's true then why don't you have this Aurora chick tell us herself?" I don't know if it'll work but I figured it was worth the risk. "I could ask her. Here, let me call Harry and have him give me her number. After I get her number I can have you guys call her since she's back in England." This will have to do, I thought to myself knowing how truly hurt my friends were, the worst part is that it's not just Jenny whose heart was damaged thanks to the press, but Alexes too. I have no idea how to fix what happened between her and her now ex-boyfriend no more than ten minutes ago.

Once Louis gets off the phone with Harry he gives Jenny his phone with a number typed into it ready to be called. "It's her number so that you can call and ask, Harry said she saw the report and is willing to talk to you about the situation," Louis says in a gentle manner as if the wrong word said too loudly will set off an explosion. Jenny takes the phone but just stands there staring at it. "We will be here with you the whole time Jenny, we will make sure this turns out okay no matter what she says," Alexes reassures her. She's still fighting to keep herself in tact but she manages.

"I don't think I can," says Jenny. She hands the phone to Louis. "I'm sorry, but I just can't." Jenny runs back up the stairs to her room.

"Now do you see what you guys have done?" says Alexes, her eyes flashing. I grab her before she does something that will get all of us in trouble.

"Hey, come on. Jenny needs you," I tell her, and it's enough to send Alexes hurrying up the stairs to Jenny's room. I turn to Louis. "I'm sorry about them. It's just that Jenny's pretty devastated and Alexes will do anything to defend her friends. I better go comfort Jenny. You can wait here if you want, but this may take a while."

"Alright. I think I'll wait for a bit," says Louis. As I turn to head up the stairs, he grabs my shoulder and spins me around. "We will fix this Kim. I promise you we will," he says softly. I know he means the best, but how can he fix both of their hearts? It's hard enough to fix one. I can't deal with this right now, so I make my way to Jenny's room. The sight of it is nothing less than shocking. Her normally tidy, slightly messy room has been torn apart, although whether that was done by Jenny or Alexes I don't really know. Jenny and Alexes are sitting on the bed, and both are crying, though Alexes is trying her best to comfort Jenny.

"Jenny, listen to me. We'll fix this somehow," I say, and they look up at me. Uh-oh, bad idea. They look so miserable; they're usually such happy people.

"How?" asks Jenny.

"Well, if you want, I can call Aurora and put her on speakerphone. That way you don't have to talk to her directly and we still find out what's going on. Does that sound okay to you?" Jenny sniffs and nods, managing a small, though somewhat watery, smile. I lead them back down the stairs to where Louis is waiting. Now all that's left is to hope for the best. "I think they're ready," I say to Louis. After all, Alexes seems much calmer and Jenny did agree to do this at least.

"Alright, give me a second to call her," he says, and pulls out his phone. We all wait anxiously for her to hopefully pick up. I sigh in relief when Louis says, "Hi, Aurora? I have something to clear up with you, but I'm going to put someone else on the line. No, you haven't met her. Did you see TMZ this morning? You did? Okay, it's one of those girls. I think you'd

better explain." He hands me the phone, and I quickly hit speaker phone so the others can hear what happens.

"Hi Aurora. My name is Kim. Can you explain to us what exactly is going on with you and Harry?"

"Sure, I guess. What is it you want to know?"

"Well, one of my friends thought...well, thought that Harry was single, first of all, and that she had a chance. She's crushed, can you tell her what's really going on? This is just a publicity stunt, right?" What happens next is something neither Louis or I are prepared for. "Well, it started out as a publicity stunt, sure. I needed attention, and Harry needed a "girlfriend." But to be honest, I think it's grown. I mean really, why would Harry go for an American nobody when he can be with someone who actually has a future?" Louis stares at the phone in my hand in shock. I silently curse life. This is not helping, at all. Aurora continues, and I can practically hear her flipping her hair over shoulders in contempt.

"I mean really, do you three think you ever have a chance? Not just you, blondie, I know you're listening to this. All of you. To be with guys as famous as them? Yeah, right. Anyway, Harry and I really are together. I can't believe you thought..." I hang up before she has a chance to finish. This is bad, very bad. Jenny's never going to forgive Harry now. Aurora was such a bitch!

"That helped," says Jenny sarcastically. "You know what? I don't want to talk to Harry again. Tell him not to even bother trying." She looks at us, and hurt fills her eyes. "I had a lot of fun last night. Thank you both. But I think it's time our sleepover ended. I need to be alone for a while."

Well, I guess there's nothing left for us to do here anyway. At least not yet. Alexes and I hug Jenny goodbye and walk out the door, followed by Louis.

"Alexes, there's something I should tell you-" says Louis, but she interrupts him.

"I don't want to hear it. Jenny's heart is broken, Louis. Broken. Mine is too, but at least that's not your guys' fault. However Jenny's broken heart is. I'm not in the mood for your promises." Alexes storms to her car and drives off, leaving Louis and I standing alone in the middle of the street.

"What can I do?" asks Louis. I know how much he wants to help, but his trying to help right now will probably just make things worse.

"I don't know. I guess just lay low around them for a while. Give Jenny and Alexes time for their wounds to heal; they've been hit hard." Louis pulls me into a hug.

"I'm so sorry this happened. I never imagined that Aurora would do that," he says.

"Yeah well, she did. And now my friends are falling apart because of her. I need to go, I'll see you on Monday," I say, and I make my way towards my car. I turn around to wave goodbye, but Louis is already gone. What a great morning this has been.

As soon as I get into my car, my phone goes off. Great, now what? It's a message from Alexes. I read over it, and I groan. More trouble. Apparently her (ex) boyfriend decided to show up at her house and confront her. I turn the keys and turn myself in the direction of where she lives. Time to go solve another problem; because I was so great at fixing the last one.

The entire drive to Alexes' house I couldn't help but think of how much damage would already be done by the time I arrived. I got there and see Alexes sitting on her front porch, face in her hands, being yelled at by Ryan. Now I have always had a strong dislike of him but right now he has taken it too far. I park the car but don't bother to turn it off; it will only waste time causing me to take longer to get to my friend. "Ryan!" I yell practically running towards him, "You need to stop yelling at her, right now!" Ryan being the ass hole he has always been decides to ignore me so I take it upon myself to grab his shoulder and yank him backwards. My initial intent was to get him to face me, but in my rage I threw him to the ground catching him completely off guard.

"You better fucking listen to me!" I yell at him in a boiling rage "If you decide to listen to TMZ an their stupid ass reports then you are an utter moron! We are friends with guys from a boy band big fucking deal!" He sits there on the ground staring at me in shock. He knows I don't like him but I don't think he ever expected me to become violent. "If all you are going to do is yell at her for some phony news cast then you need to leave now. Or even better just leave whether you are going to yell or not!" He didn't move for a moment but I could tell he was getting to his feet. I was so angry with him that I wanted to tear down his self-confidence and shred his esteem but I knew that wouldn't help Alexes right now so I stood there glaring until he got up and walked away. I immediately turned to my friend who was still crying. I took her into a huge hug and just sat there letting her cry.

Alexes hates crying but when she did cry she couldn't really control it. I was the same way but I refuse to cry; I always feel that I have to be stronger than everyone else so that my friends and all the people I care about are able to vulnerable. I guess in a way my vulnerability is shown vicariously through my friends. After we sat there for about ten minutes in silence I say, "I know how to clear your mind, go get dance stuff on we are going to go create a routine" She looks at me slightly amused because she knows that dancing is exactly what will help her clear her mind. While she went inside to get her stuff I walked over to Milla and opened the trunk where my exercise bag was. Inside my bag I had a pair of jazz shoes and a pair of ballet flats incase an event like this were to occur. She and I were alike this way as well; we both used exercise or dancing to clear our minds.

Alexes walks out of her front door and locks it behind her. She walks towards the car while i grab my bag and close the trunk. We both get in, throwing our bags in the back seat of my car. "You ready to choreograph?" I say to her with a smile trying to lighten the mood. "Let's do this" she says trying to sound excited. I can hear the hurt in her voice but I can tell that my efforts to clear her head of this hurt are beginning to help. "River" she says, "Thank you." I'm so glad I can help her, she's such a good friend to me when I need her to be and now I am here for her when she needs me.

We drive for a short distance until Alexes says "Did you know anything about Harry? You know with that bitch from earlier because you seemed like you were ready to defend Harry instantly" Damn it, I don't know if I can lie to her about this again; she and Jenny are already so crushed by what happened and I don't want to make it worse. Before I was silent for too long I decided to tell the truth. "Louis told me last night what was going on but he made me swear that I wouldn't tell you two." Alexes was silent, obviously waiting for e to continue so I did. "He explained what the thing with Aurora was about and how Harry detests her. I wanted to tell you guys as soon as he told me but I couldn't betray his trust." I glanced over at her to see if she was mad but she was looking out the window so I couldn't quite tell.

She finally spoke after what felt like forever and said "I guess I understand. I probably would have done the same if I were put into your situation. Though I'm not sure Jenny will be as understanding about this, "and I knew that was the truth. We pulled up to the dance studio and grabbed our stuff. Before we climbed out I turned to Alexes and said, "Thank you for understanding." She nodded and we got out and walked towards the front door. Since it was early on a Sunday there were not many classes in session so we were allowed a rehearsal room for two hours. We go into the room and quickly change into our dance attire before we plug in my iPod and choose what song we want to choreograph. We choose a more up-beat song so that our dance can be a crossover of ballet and modern because I can't make full on ballet routines without them looking stupid. We sit and listen to the song all the way through while brainstorming in silence. When the song ends Alexes leaps up into the air and says "I have the best idea of how to begin this dance!" She was so excited and I could tell my dance therapy was already beginning to work.

After Alexes decided on some of the first few moves, I suggested a few slightly modern dance moves that would fit nicely into our little routine. I showed her how they would fit together but during the arabesque sequence I fell. We were laughing so hard that the laughter became silent and breathy.

We danced and joked around for the two hours we were given and then other girls began to show up for the class that was about to be held in this room.

We gathered our stuff and walked out of the room still laughing from my earlier fail towards the beginning. As we walked outside we saw a peculiar looking van that resembled one of those under cover reporter vans. We quickly jumped into my car and drove off. I figured that they were trying to get more detail into our lives since they already began making a huge fuss about us.

I pulled up to my house and parked the car. When we got out the van turned the corner and that's when I knew something was definitely up. I leaned against the driver's side door as the van started to pass us. I waved at the van to stop and it did. When the passenger rolled down the window I said "Is there a reason that you are stalking us?" The driver was obviously trying not to smile while the passenger tries to play dumb "What on earth are you talking about? We aren't stalking anyone" she says in an attempt to sound innocent. "Don't give me an of your nonsense and lies, give me the truth. I recognize you as one of the reporters from TMZ and you also happen to be the one who did the story on us that was on this morning," I was obviously not happy and I could see the look on her face go from a facade of friendly innocent to devious and vile. "Oh honey, we are here to get all the dirt on you guys, so to move this along faster ," She pauses to pull out a voice recorder, "Tell me something about you and the boys of popular British boy band One Direction." "Fuck you" I say and lead Alexes into my house to get her away from this bitchy reporter.

The van sat outside waiting, when I hoped they would finally give up waiting I saw them get out and the camera man grab the reporter's microphone and his own camera equipment. This woman was just not going to give up. She knocks on my front door and instead of us opening the door, I take my brother's air soft gun and use it to gently move the blinds of the window by the front door. The cameraman notices and points the reporter in the direction of where I was sitting. she walks up to the window so I run to the front door, open it and shoot the air soft gun and hit her in the butt. causing her to shriek in utter surprise. Pleased with my aim, I shut the door and lock it quickly. Alexes and I begin to burst into laughter and we hear another knock on the door. I look through the peep hole and say in a very high pitched voice "Nobody is home!"

The reporter is obviously not amused and begins to shout "This will be a lot easier for the both of us if you just open this door and talk to me!" There is no way in hell I was opening that door. Alexes and I go back to my room and I tell her "Get ready, we are going to run out the side way and speed off; okay?' Alexes laughs and replies with a nod. I lead her down the hall and through the back door. We reach the gate and I unhook it ushering her past me. as I close it, I run to the other gate an silently open the latch. The gate is cracked open so I hand Alexes the key to Milla and count on my fingers; three, two, one. She sprints to the car unlocking the door and putting the key into the ignition. I reach the car and jump in starting the engine and peeling out like a mad woman.

I drive down the street and out of my housing complex in a full hysterical laughter. We had no idea where to go so we just drove. With no destination in mind, I find myself driving the familiar road to the mall. I couldn't explain why that's where I was headed just that my mind went into a sort of auto pilot. "You hungry?" I asked Alexes. She thought about it for a minute and replied with "Actually I am since we didn't get the chance to eat anything this morning." So I went to the part of the parking lot adjacent to Red Robin and parked. We climbed out of the car and started toward the door. We entered and saw that on the television they had TMZ paying. It was a live report about us and we almost turned and walked out. Before we got the chance to leave a very polite host said "Hello ladies, is it just the two of you?" we nodded and I said "Yeah, Thanks." Rather quietly but he was still somehow able to hear me.

When we sit at our table we look over our menus in silence and glancing around hoping that there isn't anyone there who is watching the television. I turn at the voice of a waitress saying "Hi girls, can I start you off with some drinks today?" I'm glad that she doesn't recognize us or if she does she isn't vocalizing it. "Yeah thanks, I'll have the peach iced tea" I say "And I'll have the strawberry lemonade please" Alexes adds. "Alrightie your drinks will be right up" the girl says with a smile. I am grateful for polite people because there are so few of them and so many rude and inconsiderate people in this world. I can tell Alexes is too because she throws the waitress a grateful look before returning to her menu. The waitress returns and we both order our food. While we're waiting, we begin to discuss the morning's events, as by now we're calm enough to do so without either of us getting too upset. As we're talking about it, the band's song "One Thing" starts playing.

"Oh, just what we need," says Alexes, rolling her eyes. I really want to tune it out but it is impossible because One Thing is my favorite song by the boys. Why must I be tortured so?

We finished eating leaving our plates bare because of how hungry we were. Between the stress of this drama and our two hour dance session, we never had the chance to eat until now. After eating, my phone buzzes in my pocket, with 'Jenny calling' on the screen. "Uh, oh," I say to Alexes. "What?" she responds, dabbing the sides of her mouth with her napkin.

"It's Jenny. I hope she is ok." Slowly, I push the green button on my phone. "Hello? Jenny? How are you? Are you ok?" "I am fine, but there is some crazy shit going on at my house." She responds, seeming groggy, as if from a long day. "What do you mean?" I question, concerned. "Well, for one thing, my parents are mega-pissed because now they know we snuck out. So, needless to say, I am grounded." I notice how she is cussing now, which she had stopped since she had been with Harry. That is not a good sign. "Secondly, there are about five vans parked outside! I went to get the mail and people came rushing towards me asking me where I got my PJ shorts and asking me if I knew about Aurora. I felt like I was being suffocated." "That's terrible!" I respond. Next to me, Alexes stares at me, eyes wide, with a look of fear across her face.

Jenny continues, "Lastly, when I went on facebook, I had twenty thousand friend requests. That is a slight exaggeration, but still. Then, on my twitter, I keep getting constant messages saying "Whore" and "Worthless" and "You don't deserve him" and all this nonsense. It's funny, because I guess I didn't deserve him. I mean, honestly, he was never mine as I thought. But whatever. I am so over it. I am over it. I am fine really."

This is not fine. Knowing Jenny, every time she gets mad there is the initial stage of anger. Then, she gets sad. After that, she wants to be alone. Finally, she acts as if everything is ok, when really, she is dying inside.

"Jenny, you don't sound fine. I know you."

"I am fine, Kim. Don't worry about me. I gotta go. See you Monday!" she replies. "Ya, ok. See you Monday." I respond. I turn to Alexes alarmed. "She has reached the 'I'm ok' stage." "No! That is always the worst stage. Screw him, he doesn't deserve her." Alexes says to me, shrugging her shoulders and crossing her arms around her chest.

"I'm so sorry this had to happen to you two" Alexes looked at me like I had said the most idiotic bout of nonsense she had ever heard. "You think this is just affecting Jenny and me? Think again; this is hurting you too and you know it." I just sat there staring down at the table; I have no clue how to respond because all of this really is killing me inside. We sit in silence until the waitress returns and says, "Was there anything else you ladies wanted?" I smiled at her and replied "Just the check thanks" so she set the bill on the table and smiles as she walks away.

Alexes and I pull out our wallets simultaneously so I quickly grab the check, place my card in it and wave down the waitress before Alexes gets the chance to attempt to pay for hers. "My treat" I say smiling at my friend. She has already had to deal with so much shit so I figure I will add this as part of my happiness therapy. Alexes sighs and puts her wallet away and we begin to talk about what we are going to do for Jenny's 'therapy' tomorrow especially since the guys will be attending AOC as of Monday.

We pay for our food, and I drive her home. When I reach my house, more vans

have arrived. As I drag my fatigued body out of my car, flashes from cameras blind me and I hear paparazzi calling to me, asking me about the boys, how we met, and what we were doing last night. Keeping silent, I use one hand to shield my eyes and the other to push my way to my door. 'How terrible,' I think to myself. 'The boys have to deal with this all day.'


	9. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

(Sunday morning)

I wake up around eight o'clock which is normal for me on weekends. I have to fix this and fast; so I decide that I am going to pay the boys a visit. I wait until about nine when normal people start waking up on weekends and then ring Louis.

"Hello?" He says groggily obviously having just woken up.

"Hey, okay so I'm swinging by in a bit so get dressed and gather all the guys in your place. Oh it's Kim by the way if you didn't look at the caller ID" I say rather quickly and all in one breath. There was a short silence from the other end of the call and then he replied with a quick "Okay, give me twenty minutes" before hanging up.

I put my phone into my pocket and go grab one of my travel mugs and prepare tea before leaving for the boys' place. I drive for about fifteen minutes and arrive at the apartments. As I walk up to the front door I don't hear anyone or anything at all coming from inside like there usually is. Every time I have come here I have heard some sort of ruckus from their constant tom foolery. I open the door without knocking because he knows I'm supposed to be there at this time. As I walk inside I shout "I'm here!" and walk to put my bag and tea cup on the counter. When there is no response I decide to just stand there and wait until someone comes out here. After a few minutes the front door opens and three boys half asleep shuffle inside.

"Hey guys, you look a little sleepy," I say with a smirk. Niall looks over at me and says "How the hell are you so awake right now?" This makes me laugh; I figure they usually wake up around eleven rather than nine on the weekends or any other day for that matter. "You may as well get used to waking up early since you guys are going to our school starting tomorrow and class starts at seven forty-five" the boys grumble at that and shuffle over to the couch to sit down. Only moments later Louis walks out with a sleepy Harry trailing behind him. Once they reach the couch I say, "Took you long enough, obviously twenty minutes wasn't enough."

"Harry here decided he didn't want to wake up so I had to literally drag him out of bed." I laughed imagining Louis dragging Harry across the floor with Harry still mostly asleep.

"How are ya, Harry?" I say, giving him a look of concern.

"I have been better," he replies, his eyes red and puffy.

"Look, she doesn't hate you. She may act like she does, but Jenny likes you. She may even love you. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, you should be out there winning her back. She will forgive you, eventually. I think. No, I know. You just have to work hard," Harry stares at me, and it'd obvious that he's not used to this kind of response when he's moping around. "So, what are you going to do Harry? What is your game plan?"

"Well, I don't really know. I need stats on her. I know that she loves purple orchids, but I don't know how many is enough. I have to call her, multiple times. "

He lays it all out. Harry will start with calling her, possibly over and over, if needed. Then he will send her flowers, along with a long love note telling her what happened from his point of view.

"You should buy her a teddy bear!" Liam says excitedly.

"That would be so cute," I say quietly mostly to myself causing Louis to look over at me.

"What?" I say, "It would be." The guys mostly brush off my comments but I can see that Harry took my comment into consideration. "I think I will" he says looking first at Liam then at me.

"But just getting her stuff and calling her won't be enough," I say. "You have to do something big to win her over for a second time. Show her how much you really care."

"Well what if we bring the three of you all to the concert in London?" Zayn suggests.

"That would definitely be big; Jenny loves it there (she went there when she was a kid) and that would definitely mean a lot to her" I say.

"I can't just take her, though. I have to show her how much I care for her, and how much I despise Aurora. Maybe I should introduce her to my family." Harry chimes in.

"I think Harry should do something romantic. Like right before we leave for London," Louis says.

"Like what though?" Niall asks. "It has to be good, not cheesy" He continues.

We plan something huge as a surprise for Jenny, but I need to get Alexes in on it which may be a little difficult. She is very upset with Harry for not telling the truth.

I decide to make breakfast for the boys, because I made them wake up so early on a weekend. There's not much in the way of breakfast foods, so I end up making pancakes from a recipe I have memorized. Louis keeps trying to steal one of the pancakes that are cooking, and every time he reaches for the plate, I slap his hand away. These boys just don't seem to understand that they don't get to just take the food as it's being made.

When I finish making the breakfast, I place the plate of food on the counter and the boys nearly trample each other to get to the plate. I laugh at them, because they look ridiculous as they compete for the food. While they eat I decide to call Alexes and try and convince her to come over to the guys' apartment. She answers the phone slightly sleepily and says "What River?"

"I need you to come to Louis' and Harry's apartment"

She was silent, obviously trying to think of how to respond to my request. "No," she says finally.

"But Alexes, we came up with a plan of how to fix things, and I need you to help me out on this"

"No, if you want me to know the plan then just tell me now while we are talking on the phone"

"It's not that simple. It's something Harry needs to explain," I say to her.

"Talking to Harry right now is the last thing I want to do."

"I understand that, but you need to hear what he has to say. I know you are mad at him, and I'm not saying you shouldn't be, but you need to hear him out." I pause to see if she will say anything.

"Fine, but I'm doing this for Jenny, NOT for him."

"Thank you Alexes, it means a lot. I will see you shortly." We both hang up, and I turn back around to face the guys who are all looking at me confused.

"Why is she mad at Harry?" Liam asks me.

"Because Alexes, Jenny, and I are really close, and when one of us gets hurt or upset it affects the rest of us. It doesn't help that Alexes is extremely protective and holds grudges pretty easily." I explain to all of them. "She's on her way over. However, she's going through some problems of her own since this all started."

"Problems like what?" Liam asks concerned.

"Well, she has … err … had a boyfriend. When the report on TMZ aired, he decided to break up with her. Then, later, he went to her house and decided to yell at her." I stopped, but Liam was waiting for more information. "Well, later we went out to lunch, and we were pretty much stalked. Now, Alexes has some problems with anxiety." I don't mention that I have anxiety too; this is about Alexes right now. "I mean, she was already stressed out about running into Ryan," I say, a bit of anger and disdain slipping into my voice when I say his name.

All five of the guys are staring at me now. It's clear they hadn't realized the problem extended past Jenny and Harry. "Anyway," I continue, "be gentle with her. There's no telling what will set her off right now." Impeccable timing as always, Alexes chooses that exact moment to come walking through the door. She approaches Harry and looks him coldly in the eyes.

"Alright, I'm listening. This better be worth my time," she snaps. Harry is rather taken aback and looks to me for help.

"Alexes, calm down. Give the guy a chance to talk." I say.

"I'm sorry, I just had another run in with those wonderful reporters. They want to know where I got my shirt, because that's relevant to, well, anything." Alexes sighs and runs a hand through her hair, a nervous habit of hers.

"Um, if I can interrupt, Harry has an idea that might help," Liam says softly, gently motioning for the rest of us to leave the room. We can hear the voices of Alexes and Harry carrying through the hallway.

"Okay, what's your plan?" Alexes asks, sounding calmer.

"Well, first I want to start small. Call her a few times, maybe, at least until she answers." Harry answers.

"Well, you know that's not enough, right? I hope you're planning on something a bit more meaningful." She snaps. Uh-oh, I can't interrupt, so hopefully she won't say something that she regrets.

"Well, I have a huge surprise planned for her at the hangar before we leave on a trip to London. I will have help from Kim and the guys, but I need your help so we can get Jenny to the hangar."

"Well, I'll help. But you're going to have to prove to me you deserve our help; I'm still not too happy."

"That's all I need. Thank you." He says, his voice sounding relieved. Alexes turns to the hallway, "I know you all heard that. I'm leaving now so you can come out of hiding." I hear the front door slam, and she's gone. When we enter the living room, Harry is still standing in the middle. Alexes can come off pretty strong when she's upset, so it's not surprising; at least not to me.

"She's willing to help, but she is definitely different when she's angry" Harry says.

"She can be really intense, but she is so caring that it makes up for it." I say. Harry doesn't really hear me. He has tuned out. We all head to the couch, Louis guiding Harry in the same direction. We all sit in silence until Liam says "How could anyone have treated Alexes like this Ryan guy did?" He is obviously perplexed by the situation at hand.

"He's just an arrogant ass who, if you couldn't tell, I hate." I am still very pissed about what happened to Alexes, so I start ranting. "He's always telling people they are wrong, no matter what they do unless they agree with him. He tears down people's confidence without a hint of regret. He is one of the most rude and insensitive jerks I have ever had the misfortune to meet." I look around at the guys realizing then that I was ranting about someone they have never met then I remember. "He goes to AOC so you guys get to meet him too. Wonderful," I say, sarcasm emanating from my voice with every word I speak.

Liam doesn't seem too happy, so I look at him and say "She needs a friend right now and there's only so much I can do while also helping Jenny. If you call her you might be able to get her to hang out and you guys can just chat. Maybe you two could go somewhere to get her mind off of Ryan," He smiles at me and gets up, pulling out his phone as he leaves to go back to his apartment. As if an afterthought, he turns around and says, "Why did she even stay with him?"

"I don't even know. All I can guess is that she forgave him for too much too many times. I'm hoping Monday won't be too awful." Liam nods.

"Well, I'll be there to protect her on Monday, so I don't think anything will get out of hand." With that he leaves, and the rest of the guys begin to disperse as well. I glance at the clock and say, "Oh, wow. I didn't realize I'd been here for so long. I should probably get going, and you all need to prepare for tomorrow, I'm sure."

"Do you think I can make this work, Kim?" asks Harry, as I pull out my car keys.

"I think you can. It's going to take a lot of effort, but eventually you should be rewarded for it." Harry looks comforted, so I head out the door. Immediately, I'm surrounded by cameras. Damn, not this again.

"Kim, what were you doing at the boys' house again?" a random reporter throws at me.

"It's none of your business, back off." I say, trying to get through all of them. Of course, with my luck, they're able to detain me.

"Oh come on, just answer a few questions."

"She said no," a voice says behind me, and I feel Louis' arm slip around my waist to push me behind him. "I think once should be enough."

They whine, "We just want a little information."

"Not on your life. You've done enough," he says, and leads me through them to my car. I get into Milla and say "Thank you. I don't know how I possibly could have handled that."

"We're used to it," says Louis and shrugs. "I'll see you Monday. I'm really looking forward to it."

"Me too," I say, and suddenly our arms are wrapped around each other in what can only be called an embrace. "I hope we can help everyone."

"Me too."


	10. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

(Monday)

When I wake up, I'm already apprehensive. I have a bad feeling about how today is going to go. The past few days have been shitty, and I just don't know how I'm going to deal with anymore of that. I take my hair straightener our, plug it in, and suddenly I am hit with an urge that I didn't ever think I was going to have again. I change the settings to the highest temperature possible and watch as it slowly heats up. When it's done, I take the straightener and press the side to my bare stomach. It hurts like hell, after all I'm not used to it anymore, but that's what I wanted so I don't care.

Now that I remember what the pain used to feel like, it doesn't seem like such a bad thing to me anymore. An adrenaline rush hits me and I find myself wanting more so I move the straightener to a newly exposed part of my stomach. At this rate I can't imagine how I ever managed to stop last year.

When I finally unplug the straightener, I'm not sure what to do. There's no way I can tell Jenny or Alexes, they would be so disappointed. Without really thinking I shove the still semi-warm straightener into my school bag and quickly get out the door so I can start driving to school. I can feel the tension in the air as I walk down the hallway, but I'm not focusing on that. I need to find Jenny and Alexes, that way the three of us can stick this day out together. I sit down in the hallway with them and set my bag down next to Alexes. As soon as I do that, it comes unzipped and a little bit of the cord is visible. Alexes looks at me, and I can tell she knows exactly what I have with me. Thank god Jenny isn't here yet.

"River…"

"Um, I need to make a bathroom trip," I announce to no one, and make my way as fast as I can to the bathroom to hide. When I'm in there, another urge hits me and I find myself plugging the straightener into one of the outlets. As I do this, the door flies open behind me.

"Don't you dare, River. Don't you even dare." Alexes wrestles it out of my hands and puts it in her own bag; then she looks at me. "Since when?"

"Just this morning…I couldn't help it."

"Oh, River…I thought you had moved past this."

"So did I!" I exclaim in frustration. "I just…I need a release from all the emotional pain, I guess."

"You know this is never the answer. We got through it once, we can again. But for now, I get to keep your straightener. I won't be around all day to take it from you if something happens, and I don't want to take any chances."

We go back into the hallway and Jenny's there now, but she's not her usual self. She's wearing less makeup than normal, her iPod headphones are in, and she just looks exhausted.

"Jenny?" says Alexes, kneeling down, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, really," Jenny, says, flashing a smile. Everyone accepts this, but Alexes and I know better. Unfortunately, it's time for class so we won't be able to talk with her until later. I haven't seen the guys, oddly, but it's possible that they're either late or not in our class.

We sit in our seats, which are slightly close to each other but not close enough to talk. We sit through about twenty minutes of Engerran's never-ending chatter that seems irrelevant to anything we are covering. She says we are going to do a little group activity, and since it is the start of the semester she will allow us to choose our groups. We were to choose a group of three to four total people, and Jenny, Alexes, and I immediately gravitate towards one another.

I have no clue what we were even supposed to do, but I couldn't care less about this stupid assignment when my friends and I are suffering and falling apart. We got a few looks from people around us; these glares come from people we know are "directionaters." I looked at Jenny and I said in a hushed voice "You're not okay and you know it." But she was stubborn; this is what happens when she is in the denial phase.

"I'm seriously fine guys, you need to chill out." She says to us, but I can hear the uncertainty in her voice as she says it. I know for a fact that she is not okay in the slightest. I look at Alexes and she tries to talk some sense into Jenny and that's when Ms. Engerran walks over to our group and sees that we don't have a single thing written on the worksheet she passed around.

"Is there a problem ladies?" she asks, frustrated by our lack of progress. "No, we just got off topic by accident, I'm sorry it won't happen again" Alexes says trying to salvage the situation. I chuckle, and our cover is blown. "I don't know what this is nor do I care. We have so much more important things to be discussing than stupid books in a class that doesn't even matter" I say defiantly.

Ms. Engerran is fuming, and I know we are going to be sent to the office, or at least I am, and in all honesty, I don't care. "Miss Olewine you need to go to the office. You two may join her if you so please" She says angrily as she walks to her desk to call the principle to inform her I will be going to pay her a visit.

"You idiot!" Jenny whispers harshly. "You don't need this right now, none of us do. I guess we will go with you anyways. At least I am." Jenny starts to gather her stuff and Alexes sits there, considering what would be the best choice. She also begins to gather her stuff and the three of us walk out of the room together. When we reach the office, we are told to go right into Mrs. Schenberger's office and that she is waiting for us.

We step into the office. Sitting there is the principal and the counselor, waiting for us with three empty chairs that we were obviously supposed to occupy. This isn't the first time I have had to talk to the principal for disciplinary means. In freshman year, there was an incident that involved another student accusing me of threatening his life with a pocket knife. In reality, I only had it because I was self-harming at the time but he took it the wrong way.

The two adults looked over at the three of us and sighed. "Now Kimberley, you are the one who caused this issue; so why are these two here with you?"

"By our own free choice," Jenny stated "Ms. Engerran said we had a choice so we came with her."

"So explain to me what happened in class, Miss Olewine" Ms. Cubbage, the school counselor, said to me.

I explained what I had said and why I said it, but they were not satisfied, so we were sent home for the rest of the day. They told us we could come back tomorrow when we were in less aggressive states. We walk out of the office and Alexes looks like she is going to burst into tears; she has obviously never been in trouble for mouthing off to an adult before.

"Look, you guys, I am so sorry. I never meant for this all to happen." I tell them as we walk out of the building, heading towards the parking lot.

"Well what the fuck did you think was going to happen, Kim?" Jenny snaps, her arms crossed around her chest. "You didn't think. Sometimes I love that, but I hate it too."

Tears start to spill from Alexes' eyes, painting a teary black line down her cheeks. Suddenly, an arm slips across her shoulders. "What is wrong, love?" asks Liam, his face worried.

"I was an idiot in class, and I got us all suspended for the day." I tell him. By this point, Jenny has stormed in front of us, visibly upset.

"Damn it! My parents are going to be fucking pissed!" she yells.

Liam turns to us, "She is cussing again." He is quite an observant fellow.

"Yeah, I think that is her way of telling us that she doesn't care about Harry anymore. We know better." Alexes says.

"I have to tell Harry. He brought her the teddy bear today. It is probably the wrong date and place to talk to her." Liam responds, turning behind us.

Alexes and I turn around to see the other four boys sitting at a table, watching us. "Hey! Aren't you supposed to be in class!" I yell at them.

"We decided today wasn't the best day to make our entrance into college." Louis yells back, joking.

I walk towards them all. "Well, we got suspended for the day, why not spend it together?"

"Sure, I guess so." Harry says, "How is Jenny?"

"Oh, she's dapper, as always." I say sarcastically.

"Oh, that good?" he replies, his eyes lowering to his twiddling thumbs, his brow furrowing in nervousness.

I sit next to Louis. The stinging from my stomach becomes overwhelming and I wince, too clearly, it seems. "What is wrong?" Louis ponders. Alexes looks at me, her facing telling me to tell him. I shake my head.

"Kim decided to harm herself today," Alexes tells him, knowing he could help her through it.

"What? Kim, you didn't." Louis says, his face scrunched with apprehension.

Alexes walks over and yanks her shirt out of her pants (it was tucked in), and shows him the burn marks. "Oh yes, she did. Here's proof," she says.

Louis looks at me, horror mixed with concern displayed on his face. "Why didn't you tell me?" he asks, sounding hurt.

"I haven't done it in so long. I just, I wasn't even planning on telling Alexes, but she figured it out." I shoot Alexes a glare for making me have to explain. Telling Louis why I relapsed is the hardest part.

"I really didn't expect to have gone back to it; I stopped at the end of last school year with the help of Jenny and Alexes." I paused, thinking about what to say next. I can't begin to think of how to explain the thought process to him, because I don't even understand it.

Alexes adds "She usually tells me when she thinks about it," giving me a stern look.

"But I didn't think! That's my common theme today I guess." I say to Alexes, frustration filling my voice.

"Kim, you can tell me when these things happen," Louis says quietly, trying to keep me calm.

"I just, I don't know how to tell people when I get the urges to harm. But Alexes took the straightener from me this morning so we don't have to worry about this happening for a long time." I say to him, sounding defeated.

"Well then, group hug!" he says enthusiastically to lighten the mood.

"Yes, lets" says Niall, still holding a hint of terror on his face.

The boys come together, with Zayn remaining next to Harry, who just sits at the table thinking. Zayn puts his arm around Harry, and playfully squeezes him. Harry turns to Zayn appreciatively and says, "I should call her now. She may appreciate me calling to see how she is."

He walks off to the side of the building, phone pressed to his ear, intently listening to the steady ringing of her phone. I follow behind, intending to listen in, to see how it goes. The first time, it goes to voicemail. "Hey Jenny," he pauses, sounding slightly defeated, "It's me, Harry. Kim told me you were suspended. I wanted to see how you were doing, see if I could help or be there for you. Aurora means nothing to me Jenny, nothing. Well, call me back, please. I really need to hear your voice. Not being with you the past couple of days have made things tough. OK, bye." I watch him begin to turn around, so I dash back to the table. Alexes and the boys look up to me, curious as to how it went, and I shake my head no. One by one, their heads fall. Behind me, Harry approaches, a sly but cautious smile on his face. Soon, it falls as he reaches the table. "No such luck" he says, looking at Louis as he speaks.

"Sorry mate. Well, try again in fifteen minutes?" Louis replies with a sympathetic smile.

"Yeah, yeah ok."

So he called, again and again. Seventeen times. She didn't answer. He left a voicemail every third call, her favorite number. Did he know that? Maybe he did it intentionally. Finally, on the eighteenth time, she picked up. Harry turned his phone to speaker.

"Hello Harry," she said, her voice lifeless.

"Jenny, you picked up!" he replied, so excited.

"Yes, what do you want?"

"I just, I just, I… I wanted to hear your voice."

"Well, hello. You have heard my voice. Anything else you want to say to me?"

"I… I… I miss you… And I am sorry. I should have told you about Aurora, I know. Just, it seems every time I like someone, they always leave me because of all of the drama that surrounds my life."

"Mmm, well I am glad you considered me just one of the many girls you like, Harry."

"No, no! I didn't mean it like that. I just, I want to see you, be with you, I mean. Aurora means nothing, absolutely nothing."

"That is good to know. Well, I have to go. Goodbye, Harry. See you at school." At the last part, her voice shifted from lifeless to close to tears.

Jenny hates people seeing her cry, let alone hearing her cry. I knew she was probably crying, somewhere. You could hear her car running in the background. God knows where she is, somewhere in her car, crying, and Alexes and I can't even be there for her.

Alexes looks at me, tears in her eyes. "I worry that we may have lost her forever, that we aren't friends anymore," cries Alexes.

"You can't think like that. Jenny loves you. She loves all of us. She will get over it," Zayn tells her.

By this point, lunch time had come and passed, and all of our tummies were simultaneous rumbling. "Ugh, fooood," Niall pleaded. "Let's get some food!"

So, together, we went to BJ's silent. That's pretty much how lunch went. Occasionally, a girl would come up, pen and paper in hand, wanting an autograph or a picture. The boys were all smiles then, so pleased to know that their fans were everywhere. I, on the other hand, feel nothing but irritation, wishing we could simply have some time to ourselves for some peace.

The next time one of these crazy-ass fan girls approaches, I snap. "Hey, can't you see we need our space?" I say. She looks rather taken aback.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intrude," she says quietly. Louis gives me a look.

"It's okay; they've all just had a rough day. I'll sign an autograph later if you would like me to," he says. The girl looks assuaged and leaves us in peace. Then Louis turns to me. "Kim, what was that about?" he asks me.

"I'm sorry. This day has just been so frustrating. I better go apologize to her," I respond, feeling guilty. I look around and find her table. I walk up and see that she is there with a few friends. "Excuse me," I say meekly, "I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you. I don't even know you; I just am really stressed out if you haven't watched TMZ recently my friends and I have been being stalked by the press."

She smiles at me and says "It's fine, I imagine it's stressful." I am appreciative of her understanding. "Here, come back with me and you can get pictures and autographs from everyone." Her face lights up immediately and she jumps out of her seat. I lead her back to the table and Louis smiles at us as we approach. "I see you have come back," Louis says to the fan. The fan walks over to each of the guys for autographs and pictures with her phone. When she starts to walk away she turns back to me and says "Thanks you" and then skips back to her friends.

"See, it wasn't that hard," Louis says to me jokingly. I playfully shove him and we both start laughing. We sit at the table a while longer. Alexes has calmed down and is laughing and joking with everyone again, well, everyone but Harry. She makes a point of ignoring him the entire time.

As we leave the restaurant, Alexes once more combs her fingers through her hair. "My parents are going to fucking kill me. I've never been in this much trouble before," she says.

"Did you just curse?" asks Harry. I groan; it looks like Alexes is doing her best to put a distance between her and Harry as well. "Yeah, I did. Everyone's always so surprised, but I can cuss if I want," she replies.

I place my hand on her shoulder to get her attention and she turns to me and says "Don't lecture me on being nice, I'm trying; and you of all people should understand how hard it is!" And she storms off.

I do understand, and that's the worst part. I forgot how much she has had to deal with from Ryan because he and I don't get along and I'm still unable to be cordial with him. Now I feel stupid for expecting her to stay calm when this only happened recently whereas the Ryan issue has lasted since halfway through first semester last year.

"I better go talk to her," I say to the guys; but Liam stops me "Let me do it, I think a different person would be helpful seeing as though you are the one she is frustrated with." I nod and he walks over to where Alexes stands with her arms crossed, waiting for us to catch up so we can leave.

"It's not your fault" Louis says to me. I guess my exhaustion is displayed on my face because he hugs me and says, "Why don't we get you guys home so you can rest." I nod and mumble a response that I doubt he could even understand. We all walked to the car where Liam was talking to Alexes. Louis unlocks the car from a slight distance so they are warned that we have indeed walked over.

They get into the back seat of the car while we finish walking over and Louis guides me to the passenger side and opens my door. "Thanks," I say to him as I climb inside. He closes the door and walks around to the driver's side and hops in. "Buckle up everyone! "He says rather enthusiastically and turning to me he continues "Including you." I chuckle because I knew I was just sitting there not doing anything, so I buckle and he starts the car. We get to the exit of the parking garage and, in the short time it took us to get from the restaurant to the car, a large group of fans and reporters had accumulated outside of the parking garage. "They're a little late if they were hoping to talk to anyone" I say laughing, partly because of how exhausted I was.

The fans surround the car as we try to drive away so Louis has to drive less than five miles per hour. Once we get back to school, Alexes and I hop out to get to our cars and go home. "Look, don't worry. You go back to school tomorrow and everything will be great" Louis tells me. He suddenly smiles and winks. Next thing I know, they drive away and I stay there watching them leave. I swivel towards Alexes, who is heading towards her car.

"Look Alexes, I am sorry about what happened today. You are right, I do know how it feels to have to put up with someone you really don't like. That said, I am sorry about the stress I have put you under with Ryan."

"Look Kim, it is fine. Harry and I will deal. It will get better if Jenny forgives him. She forgives him, I forgive him. Until then, I just don't like to be around him. You will have to hang out with them without me."

We head our separate ways. At home, I am yelled at for an hour straight. Apparently, the school called to let them know what happened. I can only imagine what Jenny and Alexes are going through right now. After my parents' scream-fest, I went straight to bed.

The next morning, I felt a deep impulse within me to burn myself. Fighting it was tough, but Alexes still had my straightener which helped a ton. I stared at myself in the mirror, wanting this day to be over. At the same time, I was excited. I was excited to see the boys, see Jenny and Alexes, and see people's reaction when I hang out with the five of them.

Maybe today will be the day Jenny forgives him, I think to myself. Just maybe we can all go back to being friends again.

I finish getting ready and dash off to school slightly late. When I walk into my chemistry class, the boys are all sitting there, their desks clumped together. "Hey, Kim. Come on in." my teacher, Miss Siner says.

"Sorry for being late. Traffic, you know." I say to her as I rush to a free seat. All of the girls in my class had taken the chairs that surround One Direction. It is surreal, One Direction... at my school... in my classroom... as my friends. When I look over at them, Zayn sticks his tongue out at me, so I stick mine out at him. Shifting to Harry, I notice the teddy bear resting on his backpack. It is one of those nice bears, really full of stuffing, with a huge red bow around its well-crafted neck.

"Alright guys, time to pick lab partners" Miss Siner tells the class. "Choose wise, and may the odds be ever in your favor." We all giggle at that and I look over towards the boys. Harry went with Liam, Zayn with Niall, leaving Louis all alone. All the girls around them begin begging him to be their lab partner. "Louis, be my lab partner." "No, mine. I will do all the work." "Louis, I have one of the best GPAs in the entire school." He gets up from them, smiling. He walks over to me, bends down, and whispers, "I think we should be lab partners."

"Gee, you think?" I think I am making all of those girls jealous. Realizing that he is going to be my partner and not theirs, the girls all partner up amongst themselves, all the while glaring at me. Oh, joy, more people that hate me.

Class goes by quickly and soon, it is the break between first and second period. "What is your next class, guys?" I question.

"Louis and I have math." chimes Liam.

"Zayn and I have virtual enterprise." Niall says, smiling at Zayn.

"I have Honors US History." Harry mumbles.

Uh-oh, not Honors US History ... anything but Honors History. Jenny and Alexes take the honors classes. Because Jenny is also on the student council, she has to take morning track. Alexes decided to take morning track to be with her. What does that mean? Harry is in trouble. He is going to be in class with them. I head off to math with Liam and Louis, when suddenly my phone buzzes in my pocket. It's a text from Jenny. 'Harry's in my class! WTF?'

'Just keep calm, you won't really have to talk to him much in class so be civil, remember'

'Yeah, yeah, I told you that, I know. See you at lunch.' I enter my classroom and sit down in a random seat. The teachers at this school aren't too big on assigned seating and I'm one of the few people that take advantage of that. Luckily, Louis and Liam have the sense to follow me and sit next to me rather than just wherever.

It's geometry class, probably the most boring class right up there with advisory. "Hey Louis, Liam, let me see your schedules. I want to see how many of my classes you guys are in." They hand me the slips of paper that have their classes printed on them. I look over their schedules and I notice that both of them are in all of my classes, cool!

"I have all the same classes you two have, lucky me to be stuck with you two clowns," I say jokingly. "Glad to know you care," Louis jokes and Ms. Seimens begins the lesson. Throughout the period, I'm in my own little universe. It's not until Louis flicks me that I realize everyone is packing up because class is over. "Damn, I was spaced out for a really long ass time" I mutter.

We walk out the back door and around to the Coffee Kiosk for lunch, where we meet up with Alexes, Jenny, and the rest of the guys. We are sitting in the corner at the long oval table, because both of the groups of arm chairs are occupied. Before Jenny takes a seat, Harry asks her "Hey Jenny?" he pauses waiting for her to look at him. When she does, he continues saying "Could I talk to you off to the side for a moment? It will be quick, I promise." At first, Jenny is reluctant, but when Alexes and I both give her reassuring nods, she agrees "Fine, make it quick."

Jenny leads him outside so she can get over with this. She treats it as though talking to him or even looking at him will be pure torture. She and Harry are outside talking when he presents her with the teddy bear. From where we are sitting, we can see her smile and accept the bear, but that's all we can notice before a tall figure invades our line of vision.

I know who it is instantly: Ryan. "What do you want?" I snap. Great, already off to a bad start with this encounter. "Nothing to do with you, Kimberley. I want to talk to Alexes." Alexes stands up and turns to face him. "Alright, I'll talk to you. But I'd rather do it in private, if you don't mind," she says, remaining surprisingly calm. They walk outside, but I'm too paranoid to let them be alone so I follow at a safe distance with Liam in tow.

"I'm listening, Ryan," she says, sounding defeated. I hardly ever hear her call him by his first name, so I'm immediately cautious.

"I don't think we should be over. But you owe me for this weekend."

"Look, that wasn't my fault Ryan. I have no control over the stupid-ass reporters."

"You could have told me you were hanging out with them!" I can hear the anger flooding his voice and close my eyes in bitter anticipation of what might come next.

From my peek hole, I see Alexes lunge at him. "I didn't do anything wrong! You just decided to be a dumbass and believe the lies that were being spread!" she yells.

"Liam, that's our cue. Now, before she gets herself suspended again," I say. Liam walks out and steps between the two to act as a sort of human barrier. Ryan looks him over.

"Pretty boy. You're the problem," he states with contempt.

"Excuse me, but I believe that statement applies to you. Look how much you upset her," Liam says, motioning to Alexes. She's sitting on a bench shaking and tears are streaming down her face. She looks at where I'm hidden, and as if she knows I'm there, gives me a faint smile.

"None of this would have happened if you had left her alone."

"I think you should leave," says Liam, wrapping an arm protectively around Alexes.

Ryan looks at Alexes, purposely ignoring Liam's request. "Is that what you want?"

"Yes. Please, just go," she says, her voice breaking.

Ryan looks into the sky in frustration, letting out a large sigh. He turns at his heels and storms off back toward Coffee Kiosk.

Liam remains, his arm staying firm around Alexes' shoulders. Gently, he lifts her chin towards him. "He is just some stupid teenage boy. You are better off without him." he tells her.

Suddenly, I find myself inching closer and closer to her, wanting to hold her myself. She turns around and notices me there. Slowly, she smiles and wipes the tears that streak her face.

"We will stay here as long as you need us to." I say to Alexes, my eyes focused on Liam. He has been such a great friend to her, such a beautiful person. "Look, I know what it is like to feel small. I know what it is like to be bullied." he says to her, "What if after school I take you to my gym. I will teach you kickboxing. It is really good at helping get out aggression and frustration. It can help you feel stronger." "Yes, that sounds great. Thanks," she says to him, sinking into his arms. I smile at them; he was just the medicine she needed.

"Well, I think I am going to go eat my lunch." I say to them. "Do you feel alright?"

"Yeah, Kim. I feel a lot better. I feel like a weight was lifted off my shoulders." Alexes said to me, obviously content in Liam's arms.

He looked up at me with an expression that read, "I got this, you can go." So, I headed back to Coffee Kiosk, where everyone was sitting. At the head of the table was Zayn, looking happy to see me smiling. Jenny sat next to him, with Harry to her left. Across from her was Niall, who sat next to Louis. Louis rose to meet me. "How is she?" he pondered. "She is fine. Liam is helping her deal with it. Stupid Ryan wanted to get back with her and just suck her dry even more. He just makes her so lifeless. He always has. Ever since they've started dating she's just been so…dead. I am starting to see that life come back to her. Thank God Liam was there to stand up against him." I reported to them.

"Wow, go Liam!" Niall exclaimed. We all laugh at that.

Zayn ended up calling up a Chinese delivery service to bring us food. When the food arrived, Niall immediately dashed towards the chow mein, getting to it before anyone even had the chance to snag a noodle. Jenny scooped some orange chicken, beef and broccoli, and fried rice on her plate. Harry snagged some of the kung pao chicken and dumped a heap of it on his plate, along with a scoop of rice. Zayn ate mostly beef with broccoli, finally stealing the chow mein from Niall's clutches and passing it around the table. Harry playfully took some of Jenny's food, staring her straight in the eye as he did it as if to tell her, "Yeah, I just stole your food. What are you going to do about it?" Jenny just sat there, giggling at him. I can tell she is starting to forgive him. She just isn't fully there yet. Our surprise will definitely win her over. Louis and I shared some orange chicken and chow mein. We all sat there for a few minutes, when finally Liam and Alexes walk in. Alexes lost her puffy red eyes and looked downright normal. Liam seemed pleased with himself. It felt good to see my friends getting along again.

We finish our food and have about fifteen minutes until lunch is over. Lucky for us, we all have an open third period today so we stay in kiosk when everyone else gets up to leave for class. "I'm still hungry," Niall says to the group.

"Of course you are," I say, "why not buy a muffin or something?" Niall starts to laugh and I'm not exactly sure why. "I love muffins!" he says, "They're just like ugly cupcakes."

Niall is one of the funniest of all the guys; his random comments never fail to make me laugh. Niall jumps up and practically skips up to the counter. "Muffin please!" He says cheerily. The cashier smiles and asks, "what kind would you like?" Niall thinks for a moment and decides "Bran! They are unappreciated." The cashier laughs and says "One bran muffin coming right up."

Zayn pipes in "No mate, get a stud muffin! Get it?"

"No get blueberry. They are classically delicious." Liam says.

"No, even better! Get a chocolate chip muffin, they are magically delicious." Harry blurts.

"Nah mates, it is all about the poppy seed, sweet and speckled." Louis says, beaming with pride.

"Here is your bran muffin," the worker lady says, winking as she hands Niall the muffin.

He returns with the muffin, plopping into his chair with a smile on his face. As he dives into the bran muffin's goodness, Harry approaches me. I watch as Jenny's eyes shift to me. I could just picture what she was thinking: "What could he possibly want to talk to her for?" I had no idea.

"Kim, I need to ask you something… privately," he said to me, giving me a serious look under his immense layering of curls.

"Ok?" I replied confused. I followed him to the corner of Coffee Kiosk.

"Is everything set with her family? Did they give us the OK?"

"Oh, yeah. They said that as long as we make sure to get all of her schoolwork for her and arrange everything with her teachers, we are good to go."

"Perfect, and you will get her clothes and passport and everything?"

"Harry, you worry too much. I got this."

He nodded, looking at his shoes. We walked back to the table as Jenny remarks, "Everything alright?" Her voice was filled with frustrated curiosity.

"Everything is peachy." I told her, Harry still staring at his lap. His eyes shifted to Jenny, and he smiled, as though she genuinely made him feel better. He put his arm around her and rested his head on her shoulder. In response, she turned to him, shaking her head. "Harry, not yet. I am not ready for this yet."

"Oh. Ok." He said, sounding disappointed and moved his head off her shoulder.

Suddenly, Zayn realized that he had to dash off to his next class, sociology.

"I have trigonometry at 1:50," says Alexes.

"Funny, I have calculus at the same time!" said Jenny, gloating.

"Harry and I have psychology in a bit," says Niall.

"Who is your teacher?" asks Jenny.

"Let me check," Harry responds, "We have Mahan."

"Oh joy! I hated her as a teacher, but loved her as a person!" Jenny remarked smiling at him.

At about 1:15, those of us in high school classes headed off to the AOC building. Louis, Liam and I walk out of the University Center talking about the bizarre things people have come up to them and asked. Louis said "This one girl, she looked to be about a year nine, asked me if I was really who I claimed to be and who I looked like because she doubted that, and I quote, that I was normal enough to go to school."

Liam and I started laughing because I could just imagine someone asking one of the guys that.

"How did you respond to that?" I asked, still laughing.

"I kind of just laughed it off and told her that I wouldn't lie about something like that" he replied.

We continued talking as we walked into myth with Mr. Wilhelm slightly before the rest of the class. I rather enjoy Greek Mythology because it is just so unusual but still rather intriguing. Louis looked bored while class dragged on for him. On the other hand, Liam looked to be just as into this subject as I was.

As class gets out, I become more excited with the idea of leaving for London with Jenny, Alexes, and the boys. We walk out the back door and around the building and I have to contain my excitement so that Jenny doesn't become suspicious. When I talked to Jenny's parents yesterday, I also packed a bag of clothes and toiletries to last about a week. All of a sudden my phone goes off. I pull it out so see that it is from Alexes. When I read the text it said 'Meet me by my car before you leave.' I reply with a plain response of 'Kay' and I walk in the direction of her car.

When I get to her car I say "Whatcha need?"

She reaches into her purse and pulls out the straightener that she has probably left there since she confiscated it from me on Monday.

"I'm allowing you to have this back only once you promise me it will only be used for hair." She tells me, holding the straightener towards me, obviously reluctant to hand it back.

I look at her, dead in the eyes and tell her, "I promise you, I will only use it for my hair, if I use it at all." I reach for the straightener but she pulls back; I don't think she really wants to return it. I give her a reassuring look . "I promise" I repeat, noticing the concerned expression on her face. I once more grasp the straightener, but Alexes still doesn't want to let go. I have to yank it of her hand. "Listen, I promised. You don't have to worry, and I'll tell you if I think about it this time." Hesitantly, she nods and I turn towards the direction of my car.

Suddenly, Jenny calls me, "So should I meet you at your car?"

"Yeah, I will drive you back to my house. Alexes is coming too."

"Oh, ok. Cool."

When we hang up, Alexes and I hurry to get all of our carry-ons, luggage, and other crap into my trunk before Jenny arrives.

I nod towards Harry and Louis across the parking lot to let them know that the plan was still on and that I would meet them at the hangar.

Soon, Jenny arrives and we load into my car. The first thing that popped onto the radio was One Direction. As Alexes and I jammed out, Jenny seems purely uncomfortable, until she finally turned the radio to a new station that didn't play their songs. Suddenly, Jenny figures out that we weren't heading towards my house. "Uh, Kim, you missed your turn!" she said alarmed.

"I know," I remark coolly, so that she wouldn't catch any of my excitement. Alexes' phone buzzed. At a red light, she hands me the phone and on it was a text from Liam saying "Plan is set."

"Come on, you guys. What the hell is going on? You know I don't like secrets." Jenny pleaded, obviously curious.

Alexes giggled from the backseat. The whole way to the airport, we sit in silence, listening to the radio. Finally, when we turned onto the street of the airport, Alexes reaches and wraps a blindfold across Jenny's eyes. Immediately, Jenny begins screaming. "What the heck are you doing? What is going on?"

I pulled up to the security station outside the airport. First, the security guard notices the flipping out girl in the passenger seat, who also happened to be blindfolded. He must know what is going on, because he immediately says, "Go down to Number Three and it will be open. You can park your car there."

"Thank you." I responded. Meanwhile, Jenny continued freaking out, yelling "What is Number Three? Number Three what?"

As I drive down the runway, I giggle under my breath from excitement and nerves. Hopefully, this plan works. I found the third hangar and pulled in. I wave at the boys standing in front of a small personal jet. The massive hangar left plenty of space around the jet for me to pull in and have enough room for the boys.

When I park, Alexes finally removes Jenny's blindfold. After a few moments, Jenny gasped at what was happening. "What is going on here?" she asks. Alexes and I immediately get out of Milla, so Jenny follows. She notices Harry, and I fear that she would turn the other direction and start running. Instead, she inches closer to him. It is then that I realize it was going to work.

"Jenny, this is for you." Harry began.

"I keep playing inside my head all that you said to me. I lay awake just to convince myself this wasn't just a dream." The boys begin to sing their song "I Should've Kissed You" with a slower tempo and a capella. "Cuz you were right there, and I should've taken the chance." They continued through the full song, sounding more beautiful than I had ever heard them sound. Gradually, throughout the song, Harry approaches Jenny and grabs her hand, pulls her closer, and wraps his arms around her waist. Surprisingly, Jenny just smiles, as if she understood the whole thing.

"I should have kissed you." The song ends, and Harry pulls her close and kisses her gently. "I should have kissed you all along. I should have skipped the bull and been with you. I should have done a lot of things differently," Harry rambles, but Jenny reaches up her finger to his mouth.

"It's alright, Harry. I forgive you," she says smiling. Behind her, the boys cheer, high-fiving. Jenny and Harry turn around, still holding each other close, laughing at the crazy guys.

"Well, we have a show to get to!" cries Louis.

"Wait, what?" Jenny asks Harry.

"Oh, I forgot to mention, we are leaving for London right now for a couple concerts and you and your friends are coming with us. Kim has your stuff in her car, and we need to load up now so we can get there in time!" he says to her, kissing her on the cheek when he finishes.

Holding hands, he guides her onto the plane, and I turn to Louis, pointing my index finger in my mouth, gagging. He laughs at me, wraps his arm around my shoulders, and guides me onto the plane. When I turn around, I notice Paul and some other bodyguards carrying our luggage aboard the plane. As my eyes shift back in front of me, I notice the posh leather seats, mini fridges, and small tables.

As we sit on the plane, I look to Jenny who is cuddling with Harry; then I look to Alexes and remember our plans for the pool party. "Alexes!" I nearly shout, surprising everyone on the plane with us.

"What do you want River?" She whines.

"Come here" I say, beckoning for her to get up and walk towards me.

She looks at me, saying with her eyes, 'Are you shitting me?' but she still decides to get up and walk over to me. "What now?" she asks.

I motion for her to move closer so I can whisper in her ear and I say, "We need to tell them about our pool party plan."

"And you had to make me get up to tell me this why?"

"Because…" I say, "I wanted to whisper it to you" I finish, laughing to myself.

Alexes waltzes back to her seat next to Liam. So then I turn to Louis and ask "What are we going to be doing while we are in London? Well, other than the given concert dealio."

"Uh… we should probably figure that out, huh? Boys, come here," Louis calls to them.

"Nah!" they all whine. "What do you want, Louis?" calls Harry, Jenny still under his arm.

"We need to figure out what these girls are going to do while in the UK with us," Louis responds.

"Well, we are taking them to the concert. We need to find them a hotel to stay at." Zayn contributed.

"Whoa, let me stop you there. I am not having my girlfriend staying at some hotel in London! They will stay at my stepdad's bungalow. I already asked him; he doesn't mind." Harry told the group.

When Harry commented about her being his girlfriend, Jenny turned bright red and smiled. She kicked her legs upon the couch they were sitting on and she snuggled, tired from a crazy day.

"We could show them around London." Niall said.

"Yes, we should go sightseeing." Liam adds.

"Let's take them clubbing. They can do that there." Zayn says, winking at Harry.

"We can't forget that we have the other concert. I don't believe management will let us bring them for a second show." Liam says, being realistic.

"Aw, boo." Jenny whines playfully, sticking out a tiny pout. At that, Harry gets up and leaves the conversation, resting her head in his lap as they watch a movie on the television in front of them.

"Well, Harry is out," Louis laughs, "Anyway, we will just leave them to their own devices. We can probably bring them to our signings and radio appearances but not to our interviews. We do not need UK to know all about them."

"They may already know, Lou. We do have news in the UK." Zayn says laughing at him.

"Doesn't matter, we still shouldn't have them come." Liam says, "We have to protect them."

"I am with Zayn on this one, boys. I don't think bringing them to interviews will be too crazy." Harry adds, apparently still listening in on the conversation.

"Well Niall, you are the tie-breaker this time." All eyes shift to Niall, who looks around sheepishly.

"I side with… Liam and Louis," he finally spits out.

"Gee, thanks guys. We girls will just have to entertain ourselves." I tell them.

"No, we don't want you to be alone all the time, we just want to make sure that you guys are safe. One less worry, you know?" Niall tells me.

"I know, I know. Just giving you guys a hard time." I say, laughing.

"Well, nothing says we have to plan everything out right now. We can always just go with the flow and live in the moment." Zayn remarks.

"Yes, let's do that." Liam says, getting up and walking into Alexes' direction.

We were all exhausted, so we all crawled onto our little couches or makeshift beds and slept.


	11. Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

The next morning, I wake up to the sun shining through the windows of the plane. That was the longest I had ever slept on a plane. That was the only time I ever slept on a plane. That was the only time I had ever been on a plane. Gosh, so many new experiences that these guys have exposed me to.

I groggily open my eyes and look around me, reacquainting myself with my surroundings. Next to me, Louis continued sleeping. In front of me, Zayn lays with his head against the closed window. Niall slumbers next to him, a blanket wrapped around his body. On the far couch, Harry and Jenny are sleeping side by side, still snuggling. To my far right, Alexes and Liam sit, eating their breakfast. I slowly rise and approach them, saying "Dang, early risers."

"Oh, morning River, didn't realize you were up."

"Yes, good morning Kim. Did you have a nice slumber?" Liam asks, setting his fork on his plate.

"Mm, yeah." I respond, still sleepy and jet-lagged.

"We should be landing in a couple of hours." Liam tells me.

"Shh. Some people are trying to sleep, you know," Niall whines from his makeshift bed.

"Too late, Niall. You are already awakened." Liam responds, tauntingly.

"Ugh… Where is breakfast?" Niall asks trudging over to where Alexes, Liam, and I were sitting around a table.

"I'm hungry too," I add, "What's for food?"

"Seriously Kim?" Alexes remarks, "What kind of question is what's for food? The proper question should be what's for breakfast." She continues to lecture me on my poor word choice which I find oddly amusing. I can smell bacon, so I am pleased because I have a deep love and adoration for bacon. I figure that Alexes had some cereal because she doesn't eat meat and it looks like Liam decided to have cereal with her so she didn't feel odd. I sat there silent, anticipating the food that would be brought out to us in a short time.

Jenny and the other three boys are still sleeping when the food is brought out to the table but Niall doesn't hesitate to take over half of the plate of bacon for himself. "Woah, woah, woah, hold your horses Niall." I say jokingly. "You gotta save some of this for me now." I say, grabbing the rest of the bacon.

"You sure eat a lot, glad to know a girl with an appetite." He remarks.

"It's crazier than you think." Alexes adds. "She is constantly eating, and when she isn't eating, she's hungry for more food!"

I laugh again, I'm not sure why I'm in such a laugh-y mood, but I am. It's a good thing that I've been in such a good mood recently. Shortly after Niall and I finish off the food, I notice that Jenny starts to wake up. "Good morning sunshine!" I say to her in a high-pitched tone.

She looks over at me but ignores the comment. That's usually what she does when she's still tired. I decide it's time to wake up the rest of the guys so I say to Niall, Liam, and Alexes.

"Don't you think they have had enough time to sleep?"

They all smile in agreement and we stand up from where we were seated at the table to eat.

Okay, Niall, you get Zayn. Alexes, make sure Jenny doesn't get attacked while Liam wakes up Harry. And I will wake up Louis." I say and they all nod and tip-toe over to the sleeping boys.

I turn to look at the others as Alexes is guiding Jenny towards the table. We are in the clear so I begin to count down "Three, two, ONE!" I shout and we jump onto the three sleeping boys. I take the pillow straight out from under Louis' head and hit him with it. His immediate response is to attempt to cover himself with his blanket. I laugh when I look over at the other two who seemed to be having an even harder time waking up Harry and Zayn. I yank the blanket off Louis but forgot that I had left the pillow within his reach. He grabs the pillow and hits me in the face. I start to laugh again, this time even harder giving him an opening to hit me with the pillow again. "Oh it's on pretty boy!" I say jokingly and begin to wrestle with him in a failed attempt to take the pillow back.

I hear Alexes and Jenny talking and laughing behind me but I must resist the urge to turn towards them. My initial purpose was a success because Louis was now indeed, awake. Now I have to somehow stop him from hitting me with this pillow. An idea pops into my head and I hug him so that he can't hit me anymore. We both just lay there laughing after he assumes it's my way of a truce. I glance over and Harry is up but Niall is still not having any luck with waking up Zayn. In the time I spent wrestling with Lou, Harry got up and joined Jenny and Alexes at the table and even got some breakfast. Wow.

For being on a plane, these makeshift beds are really comfortable. "Okay I woke you up, now I'm going to go back to sleep, this bed is just too comfortable." I say joking and turning over as if I were going to sleep.

"That's not fair!" Louis whines, "If I have to wake up then you do too!" he finishes and proceeds to hit me with the pillow once again.

"Fine, fine; Just stop hitting me with that damn pillow" I say laughing.

Louis stands up and extends his hand for me in an offer of assistance to stand. I take his hand but decide to make it difficult by just lying there and not exerting any effort on my part. Louis is strong though and is easily able to pull me up; I don't know why I thought it would be difficult for him. We head over to the table so Louis can eat and I just sit and wait for everyone else.

"So what do you guys usually do up here? There really isn't much to do on a plane." I state.

"Well we just hang out and goof off really." Harry replies.

I nod, figuring we will figure out something to do for the last few hours eventually. Niall finally gets Zayn up and has to practically drag him over to the table to get food.

"And now after all that work I'm hungry again. Thanks Zayn." Niall says.

The group of us chuckle at Niall's comment but we know he's being serious. Everyone finally ate their breakfast and we just continued our breakfast conversation for a really long time. After a few hours of talking and joking, the pilot announced that we would be landing momentarily. I was so excited I could hardly contain it. I glanced around and only Jenny and Alexes were visibly excited, most likely because the boys are from London and they travel so often as it is.

I watch out the window like a dork as we land anxious to land so I can say I have officially been to London.

Once we land the boys lead us outside where a car is waiting. We walk towards the car and there are a few men who grab all of our luggage and load it into the trunk of the car. We all pile into the back seat of the car and I say to the boys "Thank you guys so much, this is so awesome!"

"No problem love," Louis replies smiling.

I look over at Jenny intending on asking her a question but I can see that she is busy talking to Harry and she hates it when I butt into her conversations. The car ride is full of excited chatter from me and my two close friends and the boys laughing at us.

We arrive at our destination and the car door opens. Harry leaps out and announces, "Welcome to our home for the next week!"

We all pile out of the car and this time I insist on taking my own stuff. I don't know why, but I hate when other people do things for me that I can just as easily do myself (Not that I don't appreciate it, I just know that I'm more than capable of carrying my own stuff). Harry leads us on a tour through the bungalow and we are all directed to our rooms so we can put our stuff away.

When we are all settled, we meet in the main room and through the window I can see the pool. I suddenly get the idea for us all to have the pool party here where we are free of the drama of people who claim to be our friends. I should bring it up to Alexes and Jenny first before I tell the boys about it though. I walk up to Alexes and Jenny and say "We should just have our pool party here. No drama, no reporters, just us and the guys."

They look at each other, then smile and nod. "That would be so much better than doing it back home with all the crazies," says Jenny.

"Yeah, it'll be great," Alexes adds.

"Great we shall just tell the guys then and it's a plan" I say, unaware that Zayn had walked into the room.

"Tell the guys what?" he asks us.

"Our plan" I say tauntingly holding back the information about what the plan actually is.

"Because that is so specific," Zayn replies sarcastically.

"I know. That's how I roll" I say smirking.

Alexes and Jenny laugh at me but neither of them offers up any information either. Before we do anything, I want to explore the place; it's really nice from what I've seen so far. "I want to explore!" I say randomly.

"Let's go then," Jenny adds. So Jenny grabs each of our arms and leads us on a self-guided tour of the place. As we walk around exploring we are chatting about how wonderful this opportunity is and how much fun we are going to have. At this point, it went from Jenny holding our fore-arms, to us all holding hands as close friends often do. I'm so glad I have friends like these two. We skip around with huge smiles on our faces, laughing and joking all around the house until there's nothing left to explore.

"Now what?" Alexes asks me and Jenny.

"I am not quite sure," I say trialing off at the end of the sentence.

"I have an idea," says the familiar voice of the one and only Liam Payne from the doorway.

"Oh? And what would that be?" Alexes asks with a slightly flirtatious tone to her voice.

"Rather than just the three of you wandering about, you could join the rest of us for a swim." He replies.

"Yay! Swimmy time guys!" I shout to my two friends that are standing right next to me.

We all laugh and the three of us are off to put on our bathing suits. Alexes puts on a tie-dye bikini with a halter top. Jenny is deciding between a black strapless bikini and a colorful flower pattern bikini with sequin embellishments. And I don't have to decide because I brought my blue and purple bikini and white board shorts.

"Why are you wearing those?" Jenny asks in horror, pointing at my board shorts. "You look good in that bikini; you don't need to hide your legs and ass girl." She finishes.

"Yeah hon," Alexes adds," You don't have anything to hide or be ashamed of."

"Says you miss dancer body" I retort to Alexes in a playful way so I don't sound like a total bitch. But she knows, they both do and they keep trying to convince me not to wear the shorts. "You guys know why I'm wearing these shorts and you also know that I'm not taking them off." I say to them. I am so uncomfortable with how my legs look; Since I have done so many sports constantly, the muscles in my legs developed faster than my skin could handle and it left stretch marks on my thighs. It's one of my biggest insecurities even though it may seem like nothing to a lot of people.

"Well today you are getting over this and you are taking off those shorts!" Jenny says very loudly. I'm pretty sure if the guys are inside, they heard Jenny's comment.

"Fine but you owe me for this," I tell her shimmying off the swim shorts. "There, off. Are you two happy now?" I ask.

"Yes, very," Alexes says and Jenny beams, obviously very pleased with herself. I shake my head at them and we head out to the pool. When we walk through the door, Harry wolf whistles at Jenny who decided on the sequined getup. At the same time, Liam turns and looks at Alexes in her bikini and smiles. 'Yeah my friends are hotties', I think to myself. I give them both nudges to head over to the guys who are checking them out and Jenny doesn't need much of a nudge because she heads straight towards Harry who is already in the pool, along with Louis and Niall.

Rather than wait and get in slowly like my friend Jenny, I run towards the pool and do a full-out cannon ball. When I resurface, I get tackled by Louis and I swallow a little bit of water when I laugh. "Louis! You're making me swallow pool water!" I manage to say between coughs and being dunked under the water, while still laughing.

"Come on mate, let her get time to breathe," Zayn says from outside the pool. While I was getting attacked, Alexes and Liam had joined the party people in the pool and Jenny had moved a little further into the water.

"Jenny, stop being such a wuss and get in the water already!" I say, earning me a look and a stuck out tongue. I chuckle but I turn back around to start swimming around. Out of nowhere, Zayn asks Jenny "Who were you shouting at before you came out here?" Jenny looked over at me and I slowly sunk under the water. I tried to stay hidden under the water with my breath held but Louis sunk under and grabbed my arm to pull me back up to the surface. I decided that I would rather play around and swim away from him than let him just catch me. I swam around under water until I finally needed to take a breath so I resurfaced temporarily but it wasn't quick enough, Louis caught up to me and pulled me back towards the group.

"We are supposed to be swimming around and having a good time you know," I say to the group. Great, thanks Zayn, you just had to bring it up; I thought to myself. The group was having a conversation and I would much rather play a game than sit and talk in the pool.

"Okay finish your chit-chat and let's swim okay?" I say and it seems that I'm not the only one thinking that so Zayn asks me, why was Jenny hollerin' at you?"

I look at him and then to Jenny, I really don't want to answer this question right now, in front of a big group of hot guys. Apparently I was taking too long so Alexes says "She wanted to wear board shorts because she doesn't feel comfortable in just a bikini." At least she didn't say why, so I gave her a thank you look and said "Swim time yet?" they all brushed off the previous conversation and Niall said "Who wants to play a game?"

Everyone agrees and soon the conversation about earlier is seemingly forgotten. The first game decided on was chicken fights, I own at chicken fights. "I call Louis as my partner!" I say immediately.

"I get Harry!" Niall says jokingly because Jenny and Harry were already planning how to "win" against everyone.

"I don't really want to participate," Alexes says.

"What? No, you have to!" I protested.

"It's not really my thing" she tried to explain, but I wasn't hearing it.

"Nope, not listening. You've played before so you're playing now." I say sternly, almost in a very bossy way.

She finally agrees after a short time of silence. "Fine, I'll join but the minute someone gets hurt, I'm done." So Alexes is paired up with Liam and Zayn and Niall pair up.

"Okay, ro-sham-bo to decide who goes with who." I say to everyone. "First two people out compete against each other and the two groups remaining play each other. Then there will be a final round with the two winners from the previous rounds." We all play a big game of rock, paper, scissors and the first two groups to compete are Zayn and Niall and Jenny and Harry.

Niall and Jenny climb on the shoulders of their partners and I count down, "Three, two, one, fight!" And the two pairs begin the challenge. Jenny is strong, as is Niall; so it's a close battle. After a short time, Jenny is able to knock Niall over and she and Harry come out as the first set of winners. Now it's time for me to fight Alexes. I look over at her and smile deviously. We climb on the shoulders of Louis and Liam and Jenny doesn't count down, rather she says "GO!" and like that Alexes and I are pushing and shoving in attempt to become the winner of this chicken fight. Liam loses his footing and he and Alexes go tumbling backwards. They lost this round, meaning that Louis and I will be up against Jenny and Harry. Once we are prepared to fight, Alexes does the count down and I am once again, wrestling one of my closest friends. We struggle to shove each other over and soon Jenny is able to get the advantage and shoves me back, taking Louis down with me.

"Good game love," Louis says to Jenny after we regain our composure from falling.

"You too" she replies.

"Congrats on winning" I say to my friends and then slowly sink under the water and swim away.

"You are really bizarre Kim" Jenny says to me laughing at my weirdness.

We swim around and play for hours and then the sun starts to set and we begin to get hungry and tired out a little bit. We had started relaxing about thirty minutes ago and it transitioned into a swim around a little bit with a lot of sitting and chatting in the shallow end.

"It's getting kinda chilly, maybe we should get out and dry off" Alexes suggests to us.

We all agree and Harry says, "We can have a fire too, to warm us up."

"Can I start it?" I ask excitedly."

"No River, you're a pyro," Alexes tells me.

"Damn it! Party pooper!" I yell to her and she shoves me back into the pool even though I was still holding my towel.

"Gee thanks!" I say "I now have a soaking wet towel"

She sticks her tongue out at me and laughs. Gee what a great friend I have. All the guys were laughing at us as was Jenny. Alexes offers her hand to help me out but instead I pull her back in, which I'm sure she was expecting because she had set her towel down before she offered to help. We are both laughing and decide to actually get out this time and when we get out I offer "Truce?"

We shake hands and she agrees, "Truce." We head back over to where the rest of the group was and she grabs her towel and I look at my towel that is dripping from falling into the pool with me. I start wringing out the towel when someone drapes a dry towel around my shoulders and takes the wet one from my hands. "Here love, dry off and I'll take care of the wet towel." Louis says to me.

"Thanks," I say and begin to dry off with the towel he gave to me. I dry off mostly but I wrap the towel around myself to start to dry my bathing suit. I think about going inside to grab myself some sweats so I can warm up but it doesn't look like anyone else is so I decide against it. We are all on the couches and lounge chairs around the fire just talking. Jenny is sitting on Harry's lap and she has a blanket covering her legs, Alexes is sitting really close next to Liam and he has his arm wrapped around her shoulder and I am sitting with my legs draped over Louis' lap I'm leaning my back against Niall's shoulder. I'm glad we have gotten the chance to be so close with the guys.

"Okay so tomorrow we have a radio interview that we would love you guys to come to with us." Harry inserts into our conversation about nothing in particular.

"Sounds great," Jenny says looking up into Harry's eyes.

"Yeah and then after we can take you three out to lunch." Niall says. Niall is always thinking about food, we can be having a conversation about anything and he somehow is able to relate it to food.

"Oh my god Niall, I love you" I say laughing.

"Awww you're too sweet, I love you too Kim" he replies and we both start laughing.

"I think I missed something" Zayn says confused.

"Join the party" Louis says to him.

"Keep in mind guys, Kim loves food about as much as Niall does." Alexes reminds the group.

"Oh, well that's true" Louis says.

"Hey foodies!" Jenny says to get mine and Niall's attention. "Stop excluding us from your laugh fest okay?"

"Okay Jenny," I say still laughing but beginning to calm down. We continue talking about random things, Alexes, Jenny, and I gossiping about people we know and the guys seem so lost so we decide to let them lead the conversation. I'm starting to get tired so I change the way I'm sitting so that I'm straight up against the back of the couch. Despite my attempts to stay sitting up, I lean onto Louis' shoulder and fight sleep. We are all talking and I'm not sure at what point I tuned out but the next thing I know I'm being carried to my bed by Louis.

"Thank you." I say to him sleepily.

"Sorry did I wake you?" He asks me.

"I'm a pretty light sleeper, don't even worry about it." I reassure him.

"You might want to change into pajamas before you go to bed though now that you're awake" he says setting me on my bed.

"Thanks Louis" I say with a weary smile.

"Any time" he says and kisses me on the forehead before walking out. He turns back around and says "Sleep well love" and then he leaves, closing the door behind him.

Well, I sure wasn't expecting that. Ever since I've started getting to know him, my celebrity crush became wow I really do like this guy. And yeah that kiss didn't help much because now I'll be up all night thinking. I get into my tank top and boxer shorts and climb into bed with the hopes of falling asleep. At first, no luck but eventually I fell asleep.

When I wake up and wander into the living room the next morning, Alexes is already there. This doesn't surprise me, but the pale coloring of her face does.

"Alexes? What's wrong?" I ask. She looks at me, and I can tell she's gotten almost no sleep.

"I..I don't feel so great. You remember there were those times in sophomore year where everything I ate made me feel sick? Well…I'm having that problem again. I think it's just because I'm not used to the food here but…" Alexes trails off and leans wearily on the couch. "I'm so sorry River. I don't want to be a bother."

"Don't worry about it! Do you want us to stay with you today?" I ask her, concerned. I haven't seen her this sick in a long time.

"No…I'll be fine on my own. I think I just need some quiet for me to rest, you know?" As she talks, the boys and Jenny are beginning to make their way towards us.

"Good morning!" says Liam cheerfully. Then he notices Alexes. "Oh my, are you okay love?" He asks her, leaning down to meet her eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just need a moment to collect myself," she whispers.

"No, you are not fine," I interrupt. "You're way too sick to do anything; I've only seen you like this once but I know you are not well enough to go with us." Alexes starts to protests and push herself up off of the couch, but I force her to sit back down.

"Listen, a day to yourself could do you good. I'll have my phone on me if you need anything, okay?" I say.

"Fine," mutters Alexes, realizing that I'm not going to change my mind.

"You need time to recover love," says Liam, squeezing her shoulder. She looks up at him and smiles in a way I had never, not once, seen her look at Ryan. I am so glad she has Liam now, he's much better for her.

"Thank you. I just wish I could come with you to the interview," she tells him.

"We're heading off to the interview soon love, so you can at least hear me. But don't hesitate to call us if you get worse, alright?"

"Well, alright," she consents weakly

"We'll be home soon enough anyway," Jenny adds, apparently having heard the whole conversation from the kitchen where she and Harry had been since they got up. Alexes manages to turn herself around to face Jenny.

"Don't hurry back because of me. I want you all to have fun today anyway," she said, and I smile to myself. This is just like Alexes, to worry about who she might be affecting instead of worrying about herself.

"Guys, I know we're all worried, but if we don't get going we are going to be late," says Zayn. We all make our way out the door. I turn back to make sure we're all together and see Liam lingering in the doorway. I strain my ears to hear what he's saying, but I catch Alexes' voice instead.

"Really, Liam, I'll be fine. This has happened before, I'll deal. Go have fun and I'll see you guys later." She says from inside the house. I stop listening as Liam shuts the door and catches up with us. We all pile into the car and we're off.

We arrive at the radio show, and at first my guard is up because it feels exactly like it had when the stupid TMZ people had followed us around. But the guys handle it well, answering a couple questions here and there, and generally pushing their way through pretty easily. Jenny and I grasp each other's hands to avoid getting separated as we make our way through the crowd. Inside, we're led onto the stage just as the radio host finishes introducing us.

"And now, we have some very special guests. The five singers of boy-band One Direction and a couple of their friends!" Hm, it looks like our visit has already been explained. We are quickly ushered to our chairs and the host turns to us with a big cheesy smile.

"Hello, everyone. How are you all doing today?" he asks us.

"Oh, pretty well. It's nice to be back home," says Harry. I see Jenny squeeze his hand as he continues, "But we've had some amazing experiences in the States as well. Wouldn't you agree Louis?"

"Definitely, it was certainly interesting," he says.

I chuckle. "Interesting" is one word for it.

"And, I see you gentlemen have your two lady friends with you. But wasn't there a third?" asks the host.

"Oh, yes, there is. She stayed behind," says Liam, and then goes silent.

"I see. And what are your names, girls?" he says, turning to me first.

"Um, well, I'm Kim, and this is-"

"Jenny." She finishes for me.

"And the other girl?"

"Her name is Alexes," says Liam. Soon, the nervousness begins to wear off and we're laughing and joking with the host just as the boys do. I can just imagine what Alexes will think as she's listening to this. Before we know, the show is over and we're heading back outside.

"That was so much fun!" Jenny gushes enthusiastically.

"There was no food," complains Niall, and we all laugh.

"Okay we should probably go eat before Niall explodes," says Harry jokingly.

"Harry's right," agrees Zayn, "so where do we want to go?"

"Nando's!" Niall immediately shouts, so of course that's where we end up. When the chicken first arrives at our table, not much talking happens because we're all too busy eating. We clear our plates pretty quickly, but none of us moves to get up. It takes someone to actually kick us out before we move. We all exit to the parking lot laughing.

"Did you see her face? She did NOT want us there any longer," remarks Jenny, giving way to a new round of laughter.

"Come on everyone, let's head back. I want to see how Alexes is doing," says Liam. He's been focused on that the whole time hasn't he? As we begin to walk towards the car, the heel of my shoe gets caught on the road and I trip.

"Well shit," I say, wobbling as I stand back up. Louis picks me up.

"Here love, let me help," he says.

"I just twisted my ankle, Louis. It's no big deal."

"Maybe I just want to carry you then." He replies. I happily accept this answer and turn look at Jenny, who's nodding in encouragement.

I hear music coming from the bungalow get back. I recognize as a classical song that Alexes loves to dance to, so I can automatically guess what she's doing. I should have known she would manage to bring her ballet stuff with her. I hope she was actually feeling better and not just trying to prove that she was ok to us. The guys, however, seem a bit confused.

"Huh, I wouldn't have thought she was the type to listen to this," remarks Zayn. That's when I remember that they don't actually know Alexes dances.

"Just wait until we get inside," I say mischievously. I grin at Jenny; she knows what's going on in there too. I slowly open the door and tiptoe in, making as little noise as possible, he guys following right behind me.

"Look, " I whisper to them and point to where Alexes is in the main room. Her hair is pulled up into a tidy bun and she wearing a leotard, tights, and a black wrap skirt. On her feet she wears the ever-present pointe shoes. Unaware that we're back, she twirls around the room. She ends her practice session with a complicated turn section and begins to curtsy to an imaginary audience. That is, until Liam begins to clap. She turns around, startled. Oh god, she's been crying. Why has she been crying?

"You're back," Alexes says, pausing the music and locking her iPod.

"Yeah, we didn't want to interrupt. I didn't know you dance," said Harry.

"I've danced since I was little. I just…I try to keep it separate from my social life, save for a few close friends. Ever since I can remember there were always remarks about it that people thought I didn't hear, so I don't talk about it. It's that feeling of judgment you know?" she explains. I want to run over and hug her, but I know she needs her distance right now that the guys are around.

"Judgment?" asks Liam.

"Yeah; people assume that just because I'm a bun head I'm a weakling, or sometimes even just because I'm a girl. A few times guys have tried to take advantage of that…one or two of them have been strangers. And sometimes it's true. Sometimes I'm not strong enough to fend them off. But sometimes I am. And it's the remarks….the stereotypes that I get placed into. I got away from that years ago, well mostly, and I don't want to return to it." All the guys stand there in shock as Alexes elaborates. Even I have never heard the full story before, even though I did know she doesn't like dance and friends to mix.

"Alexes…" Liam begins.

"No, don't. I'm fine, really. It's much better now and I pulled through everything that happened. But now you know. I'm a ballerina." At the end, Alexes can't maintain her tough exterior any longer. I follow as she leaves the room.

"River! River, I won't press you about the dancing, but why were you crying before we even got back?"

"Well you see, I began to feel better so I went to get my laptop. I haven't been on facebook in a while, I figured I would check up on everything right? Now I know how Jenny felt. It's like the whole world has turned against me. I got so many hate messages it was ridiculous. I know I shouldn't care. It doesn't matter. But it still hurts." She says.

"I know it's hard. But we better not leave the guys out there too long, they'll start to worry even more," I reply. Alexes agrees to go back out to the main room.

"Um…hi," she says when everybody just stares at us.

"Alexes, listen to me. Your dancing was beautiful. You shouldn't keep that from people, you could have a real career," says Liam.

"Look Liam, I already told you why I hide it. I've been taken advantage of too many times in my life. I'm not letting that happen again."

"How exactly were you taken advantage of?" asks Zayn gently. Alexes immediately freezes up. Uh-oh, Zayn must have hit a sensitive topic.

"It doesn't matter," she says stiffly.

"Alexes, you can tell us," says Jenny.

"But you don't understand! I can't tell you! I can't even acknowledge it myself half the time! Suffice it to say, it left me rather broken at the time. Okay? Now can we PLEASE move on?" Alexes cries. I can tell that everything about her wants to come clean, to explain everything. But she just can't, and I know how she feels so I lead try to brighten the conversation. But the boys aren't having it.

"Come on, Alexes, you will feel better once you say it," Louis coaxes her.

"No." I can already see the wall that Alexes had spent forever trying to avoid is going back up. She's becoming distant again. I remember her telling me about when she "didn't live…just existed." I have to stop this from happening again.

"Love, it's okay. I promise," says Liam, putting his hand on her shoulder. She shrugs it off.

"I said no! Don't you get it? I've TRIED to talk about it, to open myself up and I just can't! Don't any of you understand? There are some things I just can't talk about!" she yells.

"Guys," I say quietly, and they all turn to me. "Leave her be."

"Trust me, what she needs right now is her space. It's hard to be pushed to open up about things you have hard time even opening up to yourself about; I'm guessing you hit one of those things Zayn. Liam, don't take it personally. She's had some rough times. She will tell you when she's ready, I'm sure. For now, just leave it be."

"Kim, I worried about her," says Liam.

"And you have good reason to be. But she'll calm down if you let her," I reply. Jenny looks at me, and then at Harry.

"How can we be sure?" she asks.

"The same way we were sure you would forgive Harry," I tease her, and the mood lightens up a little. By this point it's later in the afternoon, so we all begin to prepare for dinner. I walk into the bathroom and the first thing I notice? My straightener. Shit, shit, shit. I grab the counter, willing myself not to touch it. "You promised," I tell myself, shaking. I don't have any reason to do this, Alexes is the one upset. Suddenly, through the wall, I can hear Alexes shouting, obviously on the phone since no one else is in her room. At that point, I break. I can't hold out any longer. In a way, the pain is almost soothing, and I already feel calmer. That's when Alexes tries to open the door, probably to get a tissue since she's been crying again, and finds it locked.

"River?" she inquires.

"Yes?" I reply steadily.

"River what are you doing in there?" she asks. I don't reply. Outside, Alexes goes silent for a minute. Then she starts banging on the door. "River stop! Stop it! Put it down!" I hear footsteps come running towards the bathroom.

"What the hell is going on?" I hear Jenny say.

"Yeah, what is all the screaming about?" Louis then asks her.

"She…she has the straightener," Alexes tells them, her voice a pitch higher than usual.

"What? Kim, no!" Louis shouts through the door. I ignore them, all of them. I want to stop, I do. But I can't make myself.

"Kim, please, turn it off," Jenny begs me. "You were doing so well. Please."

At last, I give a simple reply. "I can't."

I can still hear the whispers outside but I don't care, I'm not listening. I hear more footsteps but what can they do? They have no way to stop me. Well that's what I think until the power goes out.

"Oh thank god. Thank fucking god," someone says.

"Alexes, watch it," Harry warns. Oh, that's who it was. I let the straightener drop to floor with a clatter and look at the burn marks in the mirror. What had I done?

I don't know what to say. I'm so lucky to have such understanding friends. "But, I do want the straightener back. It's just too tempting for you, and if more drama happens…well, we know what could happen. And I think we can all agree on no more locked doors?" she asks the group. They all nod in agreement.

"And Kim, I want someone to be with you if you're using the straightener on your hair. Just in case. And I want it to be kept in Jenny or Alexes' room, okay?" Louis tells me. I know he's trying to help, but knowing me I would probably find a way to sneak around all of them. No, I can't think like that. They're trying their best, and I want to make it as easy on them as possible.

"Deal," I say. Alexes takes the straightener to go put in my room. Jenny goes to search for where Harry went, and the rest of the guys wander off as well. Except Louis.

"Don't ever do that to me again," he says, still staring at my stomach and he pulls me into his arms.

"I'm sorry. It's just….with all the drama with Alexes today, I guess I couldn't handle it anymore," I reply. The next thing I know, Louis' lips are on my forehead once again.

"We'll fight through this Kim. I promise love, we will figure it out."

I start to cry, damn it I hate crying in front of people but I couldn't help it because I felt like I had seriously let everyone down. I try to walk away but Louis just hugs me tighter so I stand there crying into his chest while he stroked my hair trying to get me to calm down. I cried for a while but I lost track of time. My harsh sobs transformed into sniffles as I ran out of tears to cry. I looked up at him and asked with a serious tone, "I look like shit don't I?"

He chuckled then looked me dead in the eyes and said "You look beautiful, you always do."

If I were a normal person I would probably blush, instead I laughed and said "Don't lie to me, I always look like shit after I cry." And headed for the bathroom to wash my face.

When I reached the bathroom, I gripped the edges of the sink, staring at myself in the mirror. I shook my head, my hair gluing itself to my face, stuck by my drying tears. "Why Kim? Why do you have to fuck up like this?"

It wouldn't be the last time I would fuck up, I knew, but it needed to be the last time I fucked up this way. Screw it, I am done. I snatched the plug from the wall, gripped my straightener, and stormed out of the bathroom with it in my arms. Heading towards the dumpster, I passed by all of my friends with a solemn look on their faces.

Jenny was the first to rise, chasing after me. "Kim, what are you doing?

"I don't want to do it anymore, Jenny. I am so done with hurting myself on the inside and out." I told her, keeping myself ahead of her so she couldn't see my face.

"Why, Kim? Why did you do this? You fucking promised me you would stop. I get it, easier said than done, but seriously!"

"Jenny, I don't need you mad at me right now, I really don't." I said, finally reaching the dumpster and throwing the straightener in.

"God damn it, Kim." she said as she ran over to me and hugged me tight. She stroked my hair and we found a nearby bench. We just sat there, her holding me tight and me sitting there frustrated.

With a final sniffle, I turned to her and said, "I think this is the longest time we have spent with each other one on one in weeks."

At that, she laughed and pulled me towards the bungalow. "Come on you goof."

When Jenny and I walk back into the room, Alexes is crashed on Liam's lap and Louis and Zayn were sleeping on each other's shoulder. Harry quietly turned and yawned while Niall stared into the distance, eyes at half-mast. "Well, I guess I will have to crash with you since my futon is taken." Jenny whispered to me, loud enough for Harry to hear.

"No! You can stay with me!" he said, jumping out of his seat. "Louis is clearly sleeping out here!"

At this, Jenny and I giggle. "Uh, don't think so big guy." I tell him, grabbing Jenny's arm and pulling her in my room's direction.

"But I will be lonely!" Harry said, following us, reaching for Jenny

"Don't think so, love." Jenny said, kissing him gently on the cheek and closing the door behind us. Slowly, she spun around and slid down the side of the door smiling and staring at the ceiling. "God, isn't he dreamy?" she cooed.

"God, aren't you two sickening." I say.

"You are just jealous," she taunts, "Jealous that it isn't you and Louis."

She pops up and walks to the other side of the bed, changing into her purple silk jammies.

Clumsily, I whip open the covers and crawl in smiling all snuggly warm. "I swear, you are the weirdest, but I wouldn't have it any other way." Jenny says, crawling in next to me and shutting off the lamp next to her side. "Now go to sleep, freak."

Jenny is just great with terms of endearment.


	12. Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

When I wake, lines of light from the shades cross my face. I stretch and turn to Jenny's side and I notice that she isn't there.

'God damn, she went with Harry. Should have known it would happen.' I think to myself. Slowly, I trudge towards the door, grip the knob, and throw open the door. I continue to trudge to Harry's room when I look towards the living room. Harry's mom, Anne is there, tossing a blanket over Louis, who had slid to the floor in his sleep. Alexes was still in Liam's lap.

Suddenly, Anne noticed I was there. "Oh, hello there. I'm Anne, Harry's mum. Have you seen him?"

"Oh, he is staying in that other room, I will go get him."

"Nah, I should surprise him. We just got back from our visit south."

I remembered that Jenny was in there with him. That wouldn't be a good way to meet your son's new girlfriend!

"Here, I will wake him up!" I say racing towards the door.

When I get inside, there they are, lying side by side. Harry had a slight smirk on his face as he slept while Jenny lied peacefully in his arms.

"Wake up you lovebirds! His mom is coming."

At that, Harry immediately wakes and jumps out of bed, heading out the door to meet his mom. "So that's all I need to say to get that kid to wake up," I say to Jenny who is slower at waking. She groggily opens her eyes and smiles to me.

"Morning, Kimberley."

"Time to meet the mum, I guess." she says in a British accent.

She wraps herself in the robe she must have worn when she went into his room and danced out the door.

"Anne!" I hear Louis call from the living room. "What a pleasant surprise!"

"Oh, hello Louis." Anne said, her back turned so that she didn't see Harry or Jenny emerge from the same room.

"Mum!" Harry called, sprinting to her arms open.

"Oh Harry!" she said, a smile spread across her face as they hugged each other tight. Jenny was stopped in the hallway, and I step beside her, saying "What a Mama's boy."

"Yeah, but he's my Mama's boy. Wait, that didn't make sense. Oh, never mind."

We laugh out loud, causing all eyes to turn to us, including Anne's. "Oh, you must be Jenny. Harry has told me so much about you," Anne said, extending her hand out to shake Jenny's.

"Yes, that is me," Jenny said, clearly aiming to impress, "Harry, I hope you have told her all good things."

Harry smiled and blushed from behind his mother, and Jenny giggles.

"Well, I will let you all get ready for your interview. Nice to meet you girls!" Anne says, walking towards the door.

"Nice meeting you too," Jenny called.

When Harry's mom finally left, Alexes awoke and sleepily asked, "What interview?"

"Oh, uh... we forgot to mention that we have an interview today, but management says you ladies can't come."

"Oh bugger." I say pouting.

"Yes, but there is lots of fun things to do, I am sure you can entertain yourselves. We will be home in a jiff." Louis says, heading towards Niall, who had already made his way into the kitchen.

Quickly, the boys get ready to go. Jenny, Alexes, and I watch as the car pulls up. "Alright lads, we better be off," calls Liam. "Later, girls." He walks over to us and kisses Alexes on the cheek. Smiling, he heads out the door and into the van.

"For fuck's sake, we are always running late," Niall says, sliding his feet into his sneakers. "Zayn, let's go! Your hair looks fine!"

"Fine, fine." Zayn emerges in his signature varsity jacket. When he sees us, he kisses each of our hands and dashes out the door. "Harry, make it quick!" Louis yells towards Harry, who slowly walks towards Jenny and kisses her on the lips.

"Be sure to be home when I get back," he says leaning his head towards hers.

"God, let's go!" Louis whines, yanking Harry out the door.

Jenny lets out a deep sigh once the boys leave, clearly pleased with herself. Alexes, still blushing, cries "Did you see that? Liam kissed my face!" We all burst out laughing.

Jenny was the first to lift herself off the couch. "I think I will head to the gym. I really need to keep in shape. Any of you want to join me?" she asks us as she heads to change. Alexes and I silently shake our heads no.

"I want to walk around Cheshire, maybe catch a movie." Alexes says, turning to me.

"I think I will join you." I tell her.

We slowly walk into the kitchen and prepare our breakfast when Jenny walks past, tennis shoes on, hair in a high pony tail, wearing a matching pink sports bra and gray and pink yoga pants. "Well, I am off." she tells us as she slowly opens the door, "Catch y'all later."

Alexes and I head off to see the old flick playing at the cinema, called I Could Go on Singing.

As we walk home, I decide to bring up Liam to Alexes. "So, what's going on between you two?"

Acting surprised, Alexes says "Oh, me and Liam. Nothing is going on. We are just friends."

"Just friends my ass. I see the way you two look at each other," I pry, nudging her with my elbow.

"It's nothing, Kim. Don't worry about it."

The rest of the way back, we walked side by side in silence.

At the bungalow, I run into the boys getting out of their van. We all hug each other in greeting and turn towards the door. Through the open window, we see Jenny, still wearing her sports bra and yoga pants. I notice a pink apron wrapped around her slim frame and I smell something sweet emanating from the oven. Then we all heard it, the sweet melody of A Thousand Years by Christina Perri echoing from the kitchen. It wasn't the radio that was playing, but Jenny singing it a capella.

"Damn, it smells wonderful in here," Niall says bursting through the door.

"What's cooking, good looking?" Niall continues, heading towards the oven to peak at what is inside.

"Hey Niall, she is mine," Harry says, acting jealous, as he wraps his arms around Jenny who is mixing what appears to be a cupcake batter.

"I'm sorry, I got another craving for cupcakes and I just couldn't help myself." she said, blushing.

"It's quite alright," Liam says to her, "Lovely singing by the way."

"Shit, you heard that?" she said, looking at Harry apologetically for cussing.

"It was beautiful," he says, And Jenny blushes. Just then the oven dings, and Jenny hurries to take her cupcakes out of the oven. She frosts them all sorts of colors, the creamy mix landing perfectly atop the cupcakes. Everyone races towards the kitchen, pushing to claim their pick of the batch. Soon enough, however, everyone has a cupcake in hand and sits down at the table to eat. I watch Alexes carefully. I know the one she was shouting on the phone with last night was Ryan, and contact with him often causes trouble. Sure enough, she scrapes the frosting off of the cupcake while she thinks nobody is watching. But she does nibble at the cake, so I decide to let it go for now.

"I'm done!" announces Niall, always the first to finish any type of meal.

"That was fast," Zayn teases him.

"Well we're actually done too," Harry and Liam chime in.

"Alright, we better clean this mess up," says Louis, motioning towards the trash can. We all head over and dump our stuff in. I look down to see all empty wrappers…except one.

"Alexes." I say sternly.

"What?" she replies.

"Don't start this again."

"I'm fine. I just wasn't hungry," she answers calmly.

"Yes, you were. I can see it in your eyes. I know what's really going on River, don't hide it from me." "Hide what?" asks Liam, appearing behind. I silently point at the only cupcake in the trash can. "I don't understand," he says, brow furrowed. I look at everyone else who has crowded into the kitchen.

"Can I?" I ask her.

"Fine, whatever," she says, folding her arms across her chest. I lead Liaminto one of the back rooms, as far away from everyone else as possible.

"Alright, here's the deal. Alexes does this thing where she stops eating if she gets really upset. It's all Ryan's fault. When it first started I didnotice it but I made the mistake of ignoring it and brushing it off. I heard her yelling at him on the phone yesterday, and I'm positive that's why she's starting again. After all, it all started with him. He constantly criticized her eating habits and her food choices, and she become afraid to eat in front of people, at all, ever. She was too afraid of judgment, the judgment that he so kindly provided her with. Now she's starting again and somehow I need to fix it."

"Wait she has an eating disorder?" Liam asks.

"Well, not technically. She was on the verge of one, yes, thanks to Ryan, but she managed to figure it out and pull herself together. The thing is, she still has so many insecurities from when they were together, so whenever he bothers her she starts it again." I answer.

"You know, the more I hear about this Ryan guy, the less I like him," Liam says angrily.

"Oh, try spending a day with him," I reply. "I'm afraid that with everything happening, Alexes is going to turn back to how she survived being with him. He broke her, Liam, and now that she's finally healing he's doing it again. Dating him was never a good idea," I finish, recalling my relationship with him. I can't imagine how I had ever let Alexes be subjected to that jerk. Liam looks at me, concern clear on his face.

"What can we do?" he asks.

"We have to force her to eat. It's going to be challenging, Alexes is stubborn. But once she gives in then she'll start eating like a normal person again. For now, it's going to take a lot of effort."

He nods and we sneak back into the main room where everyone else is sitting except for Alexes. I walk past the chatting group and head to the room that Alexes and I share where I find her, sitting with her back facing the door.

"Alexes," I begin, speaking gently, "You know this can't happen again. You can't get away with it because I know your tricks." She ignores me, obviously not too pleased that Liam knows her problem. I sit next to her on the bed and rest my hand on her shoulder. "You know that I can't let anything happen to you, just like I said in that phone call last summer and like I've repeated to you many times since." Rather than replying, she leans into me and I take her into a hug. I stroke her hair trying to keep her calm but I can tell she's trying not to lose it.

"He's just so difficult to deal with and I don't know how to stand up to him," She says pausing occasionally.

"I know hun, but we can get through this, I promise you." I reassure her. "Now shall we join the others? Well, you might want to wash your face first, you rubbed off your eyeliner and it smudged under your eyes." I say to her. She nods and heads to the bathroom to wash up. I pick up her phone that lay on the bed where she was sitting. When I looked at what the screen read, Iwas instantly disgusted. "Did Ryan send this to you?" I ask anger filling my voice.

Alexes rushes out of the bathroom and takes the phone from my hand. "Please don't do anything rash" She pleaded softly.

"But he's still insulting you! What did I say about this? That we were going to solve it and what we do to solve it is begin with getting rid of the problem. Problem to be removed is Ryan." I say a little too loudly.

We hear a knock on the door followed by Jenny's voice "What's going on in here girlies?"

"Nothing, just a little pep talk" I respond, but Jenny wasn't having it, she walked into the room and looked straight into my eyes. "I'm going to ask you one more time, what is goingon?"

No one wants an angry Jenny so I shoot Alexes an apologetic look and explain her eating issue. I follow that explination with, "And to top it all off, Ryan has been texting Alexes calling her names, telling her she's a liar and that she does things to purposely piss other people off."

Jenny was not happy, "Oh hell no, he did not!" She immediately turns to make sure Harry didn't hear her curse. "Well we are going to deal with this, right now." Jenny says pulling out her phone from the waistband of her yoga pants. She unlocks her phone and dials a number; once it begins ringing she puts it onto speaker phone. After about the third ring there is an answer, "What Jenny?" He snaps.

"Don't you even snap at me like that you jerk!" She yells into the receiver. "You have hurt Alexes for the last time. I you ever so much as think about talking to her again, I will destroy you."

There is silence from the other end of the call so Jenny continues, "You are the most worthless, insensitive, know-it-all loser that I have ever had the misfortune to meet. If you had any idea how much you have hurt Alexes you would feel like the ass that you are. She has been nothing but sweet and you turn around and tear her down, piece by piece just to get the satisfaction of ruining some one's self-confidence."

"Where is this even coming from Jenny?" He asks.

"It's coming from the texts you sent to Alexes, from the constant judgment and the criticism that you have given in an endless supply since you twomet!" She yells back at him "Maybe you should "accidentally" lose her number and Facebook, forever." She finishes and hangs up.

For a moment, the room is silent.

"There." Jenny says finally. I notice her flip through Alexes's contacts and deletes Ryan's contact without asking. Without budging, Alexes and I watch as each message he ever sent her disappears as though he was never there. "He is dead to me. He doesn't exist anymore. He calls, you hang up.

Are we clear?" Jenny flashes her piercing stare into Alexes's soul.

"Yeah, I get it." Alexes says, sounding exhausted from a draining day.

"I am not sure I am clear. You will never speak to him again. If he tries anything, I will intervene." Jenny emphasizes the never as she speaks. With that, she storms out of the room, clearly frustrated. It is why we never get Jenny mad, ever. Sure, the thing with Harry pissed her off, but it wasn't her when she is downright mad. At that point, she has lost all respect for you, and you have no hope of ever

getting her respect back.

"My God," is all I blurt out. Just then Liam enters the room.

"I heard shouting. Is everything alright in here?" he asks us, but I can tell he already knows the answer.

"Everything's fine," Alexes immediately responds.

'Well, it will be," I clarify, shooting her a look. I walk out slowly, in order to leave Alexes and Liam alone. Well, kind of. I press my ear against the door so I can hear what they're saying.

"You have to eat, love."

"I'm trying, I really am. It's just so hard…" I don't know what happens next because I can hear them moving close to the door so I quickly run back to the main room to join the others. They come into the main room shortly after.

"Dinner's going to be soon," Jenny tells them, an angry look still on her face. Alexes's eyes widen. Harry walks behind Jenny and touches her shoulder pulling her towards his chest. With a few deep breaths, she turns to the table and motions for us to sit.

"Hey, it'll be fine," I say to Alexes reassuringly. "I made spinach and cheese tortellini. You like that, right?" She nods and I hook my arm around hers and bring her with me to the table. I carry the pasta in from the kitchen and set it down next to the tomato puree, which we use for sauce. Everybody once more takes a seat, and soon we're all serving ourselves. I purposely have Alexes sitting next to me

this time, and for good reason. She's still only picking at her plate.

"Alexes. You need to eat." She hesitantly takes a bite, and I turn to the rest of the table. Harry and Jenny are sharing a plate, though they're mostly fighting over the food on it than eating it. Playfully, they feed each other, making me laugh. Zayn and Niall are having an imaginary sword fight with their knives over in the corner. I'm also next to Louis, who is stealing my food. And Alexes is between Liam and I. I notice to my satisfaction that she's made a dent in her plate. A small one, nevertheless, but it's still something. But it doesn't continue. She discreetly puts her fork down and doesn't pick it back up again. Liam places it back in her hand, but she immediately puts it down again.

"I'm full," she whispers to him.

"Don't lie to me, Alexes. At least have a couple more bites?" Liam asks her.

"Well, alright." She says softly. I can see her phone in her lap under the table, and I know she's probably still getting messages that upset her, and that's why she's being so difficult. Now she starts to cut the pieces of her pasta with her fork. This would seem normal to most people, but Alexes doesn't do that to make them smaller bites. She does it to make it look like she's eaten more than she has.

"Alexes, knock it off," I hiss at her.

"God damn it, Alexes. Eat the food we made, it is good for you." Jenny snaps, then turns to Harry, "Sorry babe, I'm just frustrated." Harry nods and squeezes her shoulder again. Quickly, Jenny pops up and rushes to Alexes's lap, snatching the phone. "Seriously, Alexes? Facebook? That is it! I am taking the phone. You won't get it back for the rest of the trip. You want to talk to your family? You can call them on my phone, with my supervision."

"Jenny, I am sorry. All of you, I am so sorry. But I can't do it, I can't eat. I'm full," she answers. She says, "This was a lovely dinner. Thanks you guys, but I think I'm going to go shower and turn in. Good night." She leaves her plate on the table and disappears. I can't believe she's spiraling down again so quickly. I find her in standing in the middle of the hallway, holding one of her pointe shoes in one hand and a picture of her and Ryan in the other. She turns and sees me.

"River, what the hell am I doing? I don't understand any of what's happening. Why can't I just be normal?" she asks me, tears welling in her warm chocolate brown eyes.

"Hon, don't beat yourself up. Go to bed, get some rest, and it will all be better in the morning," I assure her. Actually, it seems like everybody else is heading off to their separate rooms as well. "Good night!" says Jenny as she happily passes us with Harry in tow. As Harry waltzes by, his hand laced with Jenny's, he winks mischievously at us two.

"Good night," replies Alexes, throwing the picture on the floor. She heads to the bedroom and changes. I decide to go into the living room with Louis, Zayn, Liam, and Niall. As we begin to watch Toy Story, Jenny creeps out of the bedroom she was sharing with Harry. Noticing the blue of her pajama shorts out of the corner of my eye, I turn to her. "What's up, Jenn?"

"Oh, just washing my face and brushing my teeth. Got to be minty fresh, you know?" she whispers, winking playfully. "Wait, what is that?" Jenny asks, bending down to pick up the picture.

"God, not this! I can't believe he was ever my friend, you know?" She begins tiptoeing into the living room to join us. "I got them together. This is all my fault." she cried, bending over and burying

her face in her hands. "I feel so stupid, so blind."

"Look, Jenny. This isn't your fault." Louis says to her, getting up to hug her.

"Where did Jenny go?" Harry asks, joining us in only his sweatpants. "What is going on? Jenny," he pulls her chin up to look at him, "What is wrong?" Immediately, she lunges at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and nuzzling her head into his shoulder. "It's ok, Jenny," he says,

draping his arms around her thin waist. Soon, she pulls up, steps back, and grips the picture. With the

lighter next to the fireplace, she lights the picture on fire and tosses it into the fireplace.

Alexes soon emerges, heading towards the bathroom. "What the hell is going on?" she asks, clearly recovering from recently crying. She notices the two faces burning in the fire, the relationship she had

going up in flames, literally.

"Who did this?" she asks, seeming frustrated. Why would she be frustrated? Wouldn't she be relieved? "Alexes, it was me. You don't need him in your life anymore." Jenny replied, walking towards her cautiously.

"I am gonna go take a shower. I need to relax." Alexes said, turning her face to the left. Soon, she spun on the balls of her feet and gracefully pranced to the bathroom. The whooshing sound of the shower finally echoed into the living room.

"Well we should get to bed, right Harry?" Jenny suggests to Harry, grabbing his hand and motioning towards their door.

"Oh, Toy Story!" Harry exclaims, noticing the movie on the screen. "Can't we stay and watch."

"Toy Story! I love that movie! I will make some popcorn!" Jenny yells racing into the kitchen open to the living room.

Liam immediately turns the movie back on, just in time to watch Buzz call Woody a "sad, strange little man."

"God, I love this movie." Liam says, a huge smile painted on his cheeks.

"Of course you do, Woody." Niall says, laughing.

Within minutes, Jenny plops herself in between Harry and I, a big bowl of popcorn in her lap.

"I got a little creative," Jenny explained, "I put mixed in some chocolate syrup, M&Ms, and a hint of caramel."

"My goodness, sounds delicious!" Niall proclaims, pouncing on the bowl and pulling out a huge handful of the sticky goodness.

As we watch the movie, Jenny slides her head onto Harry's lap, and Harry rubs his hand through her long and wavy golden hair. They look like one of those stupid in love couples from the movies. It is sickeningly adorable.

The next morning, the boys have the day off, and decide to take us sightseeing. We begin at the Tower of London. Jenny, in high-waisted jean shorts, a white flowing blouse, and black Ray Bans, looks stylish as ever with Alexes and I at each of her sides. Since last night's episode, she has replaced Harry (only temporarily) in order to keep an eye on Alexes and give Harry some breathing room (she says being together too long can feel suffocating). As we pass through the long corridors, all ooing and ahhing at the marvels of the Tower of London, Alexes proclaims "This is the most fun I have had in a while." She grabs Jenny and my hand and squeezes, pulling us farther ahead and nearly skipping down the path. Next came Buckingham Palace, which was somewhat of a letdown. "I am not impressed," I say snobbishly turning around to breathe in the place.

"No one is thrilled at it from outside this gate, but the building holds so much importance, so much beauty within its walls." Louis says, clearly proud of how poetic he sounds.

As I spin around rambunctiously, I notice a man taking a picture of us. "Uh oh, guys. Paparazzi is on the prowl," I say, tugging at Jenny's sleeve.

Alexes, wearing a tight-fitting aquamarine shirt and pale blue skinny jeans, flips around and looks right at him. "Well, at least I don't need to worry about Ryan seeing this, right?"

"Why even think about him?" Jenny offers, instantly tensing at the sound of his name.

"Get behind us, ladies," Zayn says, stepping in front of me. We should probably head somewhere new.

"Let's go on a double-decker bus!" I yell excitedly. I am such a tourist, but its what is so lovable, I think. When the next bus stops, we all pile on, with Harry next to Louis, Liam next to Niall, Zayn next to Jenny, and me next to Alexes. I beg to be on the outside seat, in order to get a closer look. She tells me that I am allowed, as long as I don't fall out from leaning out so far to see.

Around us, beautiful buildings zoom by. The wind whips through my short red hair. I look over to Louis, who was already looking at me. Nervously, I look down at my red pants and low-cut black shirt. 'Why was he looking at me like that?' I think to myself. 'What does it matter? I liked it.'

"Kim, take Zayn and my picture!" Jenny calls, tossing me her camera. Jenny always loves having a picture to record memories. Plus, I think she and Zayn are both kinda vain.

"Fine!" I yell back at her, lining up the camera with the two of them as they flash me their model faces. In a way, it was slightly humorous, but also a little unnerving, because they could both pull it off without looking ridiculous. After about five pictures, Jenny takes her camera back and begins artfully taking pictures of everything around her. She took a picture of a woman who was wearing this crazy multicolored outfit walking her dog whose fur was died pink. Then she took a picture of the road ahead with all the different buildings.

She then moved to taking candid pictures of all of us. First, she takes a picture of Alexes running her fingers through her windblown honey-colored hair. Then, she sneakily gets a shot of me blushing still from Louis' looks at me. Next, she takes tons of pictures of Niall and Liam, arm around each other's shoulders. Lastly, she snaps some adorable pictures of Louis and Harry bugging each other, which I know will blow up if we put it on any of our profiles. Really, any of these would.

Next thing we all know, random girls begin to recognize the boys and start chasing the bus! Niall instantly ducked down so the girls couldn't see him, but when the bus stops to let people off, masses of girls begin to get on. Paul, who had decided to sit on the lower level, had to fend off the girls as we exit the bus.

Slowly, the group of us make our way to a small bakery, where we attempt to cool off and wait for the girls to get on their way. The only thing is, they didn't. After about an hour, the girls still weren't budging, waiting for a quick interaction with the boys.

Because the bakery wasn't able to let anyone in, they ask us to let in customers or leave. "We should go," Liam says, motioning for us to leave.

We all agree and head towards the exit, off to our next location. Once we arrive at the Globe Theater, Alexes, Jenny, and I are spazzing out because we are theater geeks after all. The inside of the theater was so amazing, there was so much space and the stage was huge. I so badly wanted to be allowed on the stage but that was only allowed if you are in one of the special tour groups that gives you the in depth tour. I turn to Alexes and voice my thoughts, "Oh how amazing would it be to be on stage, especially a stage that big?"

She smiles at the thought, most likely thinking what it would be like to dance on the stage that we are standing in front of. "Just imagine the rush of performing for an audience and having them cheer for you when you finished a scene." I continued to my two best friends, picturing a performance starring me.

"You three are so bizarre" Niall teases.

"Yeah, there's got to be a screw loose or something." Zayn continued.

The rest of the boys joined in the taunting but the three of us don't really care because we are too interested in the magnificence that is currently surrounding us.

After a while the boys began to get bored of the Globe and decided they wanted to take us to a surprise location but they said if we didn't leave now, it would be closed to tourists by the time we got there.

Alexes and Jenny looked at each other, confused but excited. I on the other hand, more than excited to see where we were going; knowing the boys, it is going to be amazing. To our surprise, we arrive at a train station and they already have pre-ordered train tickets.

"The ride there will take about an hour and twenty minutes" Liam informed us as we were getting on the train.

I went straight for a window seat so I could watch the scenery as we went along. I've been on a train before and to be honest, it's not as fantastic as Harry Potter makes it look.

We all found our seats and this time, Jenny sat with Harry, Alexes sat with Liam, Niall and Zayn sat together, and I sat with Louis. I made Alexes sit in the seat across the aisle to my left though, so I could talk to her through the ride when I wasn't talking to Louis and she wasn't talking to Liam. We sat there talking for about fifteen minutes before the train left the station and we were off to our surprise location.

"Why won't you tell us where we are going?" Alexes asked Liam.

"Because love, it's a surprise." He replies with a smile.

I'm watching the interactions between my friends when I hear Louis chuckle. "What are you laughing at Lou?" I ask him.

"What are you talking about? I wasn't laughing," He says acting innocent.

"Oh please, I know you were laughing." I say to him smiling.

"You are just analyzing everyone," giggled Louis, "Like a watchdog."

"I do that sometimes, observe I mean. It helps me feel sane." I replied.

"It is good not to be sane, makes life more fun!" Louis laughed, tickling my side.

"No! Louis! Don't do that! Ah!" I yelped fighting back a burst of laughter and trying to make sure I didn't pee my pants.

"Get her, Lou!" Jenny cheered.

"No, Jenny! Do NOT encourage him!" I pleaded, feeling tears of laughter spilling out of my eyes like buckets of rain.

"You crying, Kim? I am not hurting you, am I?" Louis wondered, continuing to tickle me.

"No, but please, before things get dirty!" I cried.

Harry lets out a burst of laughter and covers his mouth with his hand, trying to suppress the dirty thought that came into his head. Jenny, with a slightly embarrassed look on her face, cries, "I think she means before she wets herself," and elbows Harry in the side.

"Ow, that hurt!" Harry cried, giving Jenny a dramatized pout.

"Oh, I'm sorry! You want me to kiss it and make it feel all better?" Jenny replies in a sarcastic baby voice.

"Pwease?" Harry baby talks back.

"God, get a room." Niall moans.

"I second that," Liam pipes up.

However, instead of kissing his "boo-boo," Jenny just kissed him, straight on the face, which surprised Harry just as much as it did the rest of us. By this point, Louis had stopped tickled me, but we were just lying there, him on top of me, both of us looking at the couple.

Suddenly, we all watch Harry's surprise fade as his body loosens and he begins to kiss her back. This is probably the longest kiss they've had so far.

"Bleh!" "Ew!" "Gross!" we all whine, as if we are watching our parents make out.

Harry, who is facing us, gives Louis a wink as though to say, "I got a good one here."

Louis smiles and returns to his seat like a proud papa.

I return to my seat and fix my shirt, which had become disheveled in the tickle fight.

"Can't believe you did that." I said to him, shaking my head in pleasant disbelief.

"I think I got to second base!" he says to me, laughing.

As I sock him in the arm, I look over at Alexes, who is making major goo-goo eyes at Liam.

Liam seems completely unaware, staring at the ceiling, looking out the window, with the occasional look at her as he tells this bigger than life story, hand gestures and everything.

"Liam, that's fascinating." Alexes says, her eyes adoring.

"Yeah, I guess. But enough about me! Tell me about your ballet!" he asks, looking deep in her soul.

"Oh, yeah," she nervously giggles.

"We'll start simple," Liam says, "How long have you been dancing?"

"I started when I was about five or six, I don't remember the exact age. I started going to my studio in Santa Clarita when I was six though," she tells him.

"You must have really enjoyed it if you're still doing it," Liam replies. Alexes looks at him and smiles, a small spark in her eyes.

"I love it. Ballet is...I don't know how to describe it. It's my sanctuary, my escape from the world. All my problems melt away when I'm dancing. Even when I'm just around my dance friends, I feel so much better. I eat more around them, for one thing. For another, we've made it through thick and thin together. I'm closer to my dance friends than to my school friends. Well, most of my school friends anyway," Alexes says, glancing at Jenny and I.

"Do you perform?" Liam asks her.

"Oh, yes. We do two performances for the public annually, and we have parent nights here and there. Every December we put on a production of The Nutcracker, and then each June we stage a different ballet. Last year, for example, we did Peter Pan."

"We saw that!" I shout, and Alexes shoots me a glare for interrupting her time with Liam.

Liam turns to me and laughs, asking "Well what did you think, Kim?"

"Hey, I was there too," Jenny pouts.

"It's okay Jenny, I was the one who shouted after all," I console her, but she just smacks me playfully on the arm and turns back to Harry.

Liam also turns back to Alexes. "What about you Alexes, what you think of performing?"

Alexes's face shines in way that I haven't seen in ages. "Oh, performing is one of my favorite things ever! There's nothing more magical than becoming someone else under all those stage lights, and then when the audience claps, that they're clapping for you. But I suppose you already know they're clapping for you, Liam," she teases.

Liam laughs. "They're clapping for all of us Alexes, you know that."

"Well I'm clapping for you," she mutters, but Liam doesn't hear her.

I follow Alexes' example and lean against Louis, and before I know it I'm being shaken awake.

"Kim, get up. This is our stop," Louis says as I blink myself awake.

"Already?" I ask groggily, and everybody laughs.

"Yes, already," says Niall.

"Damn, I can't believe I fell asleep again." I say under my breath so only I could hear it.

We all walk of the train into the station and it's approximately three P.M.

"Are you guys going to tell us where you're taking us yet?" Alexes asks no one in particular.

"I know where we are going!" Jenny exclaims.

"Well don't ruin the surprise for the other two" Harry tells her with a smile.

"Okay," she replies cheerfully; so much for figuring out where they're taking us. I glance over to where Alexes is walking beside Liam and notice that they are waking rather close together. Wow he needs to notice that she wants to hold his hand I think to myself knowing that's exactly what she wants to do right now. All the signs are there, she's walking close to him their arms brushing ever so slightly as they walk, her hand is open and turned slightly forward and she keeps glancing at his hand. I'm so focused on Alexes that I hadn't even realized that Louis was trying to get my attention until he flicked my ear.

"Ow, what the hell?" I say caught completely off guard.

Laughing, Louis says "I've been talking to you and you never said anything back. It was pretty much a one way conversation which made me feel sorta dumb."

"I'm sorry, I've been sort of uhhh what's the word" I say to myself trying to place the right word "distracted, yeah that sounds about right…" I say trailing off at the end of my sentence.

"Well miss distracted, we are almost at our surprise destination." Louis tells me. I push all other distractions out of my mind, ready to take in the beauty of this new place once we get there. We walk just a little bit longer and Louis covers my eyes, thank god I'm wearing my contacts because handprints are a bitch to clean off my old glasses.

"Thanks for covering my eyes, just don't smear my eyeliner, don't wanna look like a raccoon for the rest of the day." I say laughing. As we walk, I'm holding on to Louis' arm and shuffling along so that I don't trip and kill myself being the klutz that I am. Alexes and I are laughing and taunting one another, "You'll probably fall right before we get there!" She shouts at me.

"Oh please, you'll end up tripping as soon as you can see again" I tease back. Every one else in our group seems to be amused by our playful banter for a while and then we stop moving.

"You two ready for the surprise?" Niall asks us.

"You know it!" We both say in unison and laugh at how similar our minds are.

I hear Alexes gasp but I still have Louis' hand over my eyes so I can't see anything.

"Oh come on, let me look." I plead.

"I don't know; it's funny teasing you." He says with a smirk in his voice.

"Let her look! She's going to love it!" Alexes says. Then I feel Lois' hands being pulled away from my face and in front of me I see the most magnificent castle.

"Holy shit," I mutter under my breath.

"I know! We are at a castle!" Alexes shouts excitedly.

"Now love, if you keep shouting they aren't going to let us in." Liam says to her teasingly.

"Let's get this show on the road" Jenny says, obviously excited to be re-visiting a place she loved so much from a time in her past.

We all start to file in behind Harry and Jenny who seem to know where they are going. The only issue with being behind the couple is they are so gushy and lovey all the time.

"Oh my god guys, it's hard for me to focus on the beauty of this place with you two being all grody in front of us all."

"Oh hush you, you're just jealous" Jenny says to me before turning around to give Harry a kiss.

I look at Alexes and we both say "Yuck!" before we return to admiring the castle. We are stopped behind a tour group so I wrap my arm around Alexes' shoulders and whisper to her, "I know what you're doing."

Alarmed she replies "What? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Calm down love, I mean the whole hinting at you know who, trying to get a little hand-holding action all up in here."

She elbows me, which catches right in my ribs; good thing I was expecting that.

"Ladies, ladies. No violence please." Louis says as he forces his way in between me and Alexes.

"But she's teasing me" Alexes whines jokingly.

"You know you love me" I say to her, resulting in a chuckle for both her and Louis.

"How could she not," Louis says while wrapping one of his arms around each of our shoulders and we continue forward through the castle. I didn't notice until we were done in the castle that Alexes had walked over to join Liam and I was just walking along with Louis' arm around my shoulders; I didn't mind it though.

"So, did you enjoy the surprise?" Zayn asked us as we headed back to the train station.

I responded with a "Hell yeah I did!" whereas Alexes responded with "Holy shit, we were actually in a castle." Making us all laugh at her even though I shared her amazement.

The walk back to the train station seems shorter than the walk to the castle which makes sense since there isn't anything to anticipate except food and relaxation.

"Where do you guys want to go for dinner?" Niall asks everyone as we stand waiting for the train to roll up. Typical, the first thing this boy says involves food.

"We should get Italian from somewhere" Jenny suggests to the group.

"Yes," Niall says, "Pasta time!"

When we finally load onto the train Jenny googles, on her phone, the best place for Italian in London.

Finally, Jenny tried to pick a place with enough options for each of us, without it being too expensive. Jenny is always trying to stay on budget, even if there is no budget. She even feels guilty when she orders or purchases something she thinks is too expensive.

"Hey Alexes, I need to speak to you." Jenny whispers, standing to walk to a deserted part of our train car. Her face is serious, showing that she means business. I know that I don't want to stay alone without knowing what they say to each other.

"Can I join?" I pipe up quickly.

"Uh... Sure, Kim, I guess so." Jenny adds, turning in the direction of the deserted portion.

Jenny escorts us both over there until she places Alexes in the aisle seat next to her and me right across from Alexes. "Look, I want you to know, I care about you so much. You are so much stronger than this, and I believe that together, we can help you overcome your," she pauses, "struggle."

"Oh, that is what you wanted to talk to me about. I had a feeling." Alexes mumbles, putting her hands in prayer position in her lap and keeping her head low.

"I just don't get it, sweetheart." Jenny whispers, turning to look out at the darkening scenery speeding past us. "How... How could you let him do this to you? How could you not tell me? We are supposed to be best friends! I am not mad at you, really. I am mad at myself for being so self-focused I didn't even notice your pain." Jenny buries her face into her hands and releases this little sob.

It kills me to see any of my friends cry, but especially these two. When Alexes cries, it is the expression of her lovable sensitivity. She is like a fawn, so innocent and elegant. If a fawn is injured or weak, you weep for it and want to help it. When Jenny cries, it is different. Jenny never cries, at least not in front of people. She maintains this strong, carefree facade, when really, she takes the world on her shoulders and struggles with the anxiety and stress of carrying the weight.

I reach out for her, as does Alexes, and we all just sit there (well me more kneeling) in this group embrace and hold each other, all sobbing.

"I am so sorry, you guys. I never wanted to hurt you guys. I should never have let this go on for so long." Alexes cries, sniffling between every other word.

"Oh, honey," Jenny says, a slight smile on her face, "You didn't hurt us. You only made us closer as friends."

Suddenly, Harry emerges, probably from separation anxiety caused by being away from Jenny. He notices us together, tears running down our faces. Just when I think he is going to freak out, he just kneels down beside me and joins us, wrapping his arms around Alexes and I and kneeling his head against mine.

Because of this, Jenny bursts out in louder cries, the noise piercing the air, breaking our hearts bit by bit. "I can't help but feel like I am to blame for this. I helped put you two together. I practically pressured him into asking you out. This is all my fault." Like a child, Jenny pulls up her knees, her arms gripping them, face buried into the rounds of her knee caps. Harry pushes himself off the ground and helps lift her up so she is standing. Jenny doesn't protest, her weakness is laid out in front of all of us and she has reached the point of not caring how she is perceived by us. He pulls her into a hug. Due to her lack of height, her head only rests on his chest. Slowly, he strokes her head, whispering, "I'm here. It's ok."

"Jenny, this isn't your fault. It isn't any of our faults. This was caused by Ryan, the ass." I call out to her, standing up but still gripping Alexes' cold and frail hand.

"We should go back," Alexes whispers, reaching into her bag to retrieve a pack of tissues. She begins to wipe her face and reapply her makeup, but none of us budge.

Jenny remains there in Harry's arms. After Alexes, I am the first to move. She hands me a tissue and a mirror, so I sit next to Alexes and begin wiping the saturated eyeliner from my face. Once we fix our makeup, we silently rise and walk back to our seats hand in hand. Jenny and Harry remain behind, locked in the same position.

When Louis notices us, he pipes up, "Gosh, it feels like you have been gone forever! Thought you guys ditched us or..." Louis stops when he finally realizes our puffy, red eyes and the change in our moods. "Everything alright, lovelies?"

"Oh, yeah," Alexes quietly responds, "I think things are better now." She turns to me and squeezes my hand until she finally lets go and goes back next to Liam.

The boys faces illustrate their confusion, but finally Niall chirps up, "Well, I am glad things are becoming less bad. These last couple of days are going to be fun and action-packed! No room for sadness!"

At this, I sigh and let out a soft laugh. I sit back down next to Louis and rest my head on his shoulder, watching the sun descend behind the horizon.

"Louis?" I murmur.

"Yes love?" he replies, stroking my short hair.

"…Nothing," I say contently. I don't really know what I wanted to say anyway.

"Alright love. Well if you remember, feel free to speak up." I smile; hearing that makes me feel happy inside. Alexes is standing, staring out of one of the windows with her arms folded around her chest. Liam has his arms wrapped around her waist and is holding on to the edge of the seat to keep them from both falling over.

I don't see Jenny and Harry, but I know they're with each other. Those two are becoming attached at the hip more and more every day. Then the train lurches to a stop, and we all have to pile off.

The restaurant we pick, Bocca di Lupo, seems like a pretty nice place. We walk in and the hostess smiles at the guys, obviously recognizing them.

"Hi, I was wondering if you have a table-," Niall begins, but she cuts him off.

"Of course we have a table. Right this way, please," she says, walking quickly through the restaurant. We all quicken our pace to keep up with her.

We end up at a table in the back of the room, kind of away from the rest of the people in the restaurant. It's nice to have a little space. We all sit down, and the hostess leaves us to enjoy ourselves. As soon as she's gone, it's no longer a quite dinner party.

"Harry! I need to see that," Jenny complains as Harry holds her menu above his head, grinning tauntingly.

"Relax, I can order for you," Harry teases her.

"And how do you know what I'll like?" Jenny asks him.

"Trust me, Let me surprise you," Harry says, setting the menu down and planting a kiss on Jenny's cheek.

"If I don't like it I'm blaming you," Jenny says, laughing.

"Okay, I better check with you then," Harry tells her. "How does the tagliata sound? We can share it."

"I'd love that," Jenny says.

"I knew you would," says Harry, placing his hand on her harm.

"Alright, let's NOT get kicked out of here," Alexes says, life in her eyes and her good mood returning.

"I don't think we will," Zayn assures her.

"Yeah love, he's right," chimes in Liam. Jenny's still struggling to get her menu back from Harry, and the rest of us, for whatever odd reason, find this hilarious.

Suddenly a waitress appears out of nowhere.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. May I start you off with a drink?" She asks us. One by one, we all make our requests.

"Could I get an iced tea please," I say, still giggling a bit at Jenny's predicament. I can tell the waitress is confused but she moves on to Alexes.

"Just water, thanks," Alexes says after me.

We place our orders for food as well, and then we go back to goofing off.

"If we weren't in public, a food fight would be awesome," Niall says, looking at us mischievously.

"Too bad we're in public," says Louis. For a moment we all pause, and then everyone bursts out laughing. I look at my friends and see them having such a great time. Right now, all is well.

But then the food comes. At first, everything seems fine. We've all ordered some kind of pasta, and Jenny, Alexes and I are splitting the dish we're having with the guys we're sitting next to. Once we've been served, everyone is silent, eating. After a bit, I look up. Shit.

I should have known Alexes wouldn't just heal like that. For god's sakes I know how long the recovery process can be. But I didn't think it would still be this bad, either. Alexes is just sitting there, staring at the plate in front of her. Her eyes are wide and she's clenching her hand in a fist. Before I can say anything, she gets up and disappears; heading towards what I assume is the restaurant bathroom.

No one besides Liam and I seem to have noticed her odd behavior; they're all too wrapped up in their own conversations. Liam nods and me and I get up and follow her. I walk in, and take a deep breath.

"Alexes? Are you in here?" I ask. There's no reply, but I can see her in one of the open stalls. She's leaning against the stall door to support herself. She looks at me.

"Why would I want to do something like this? I know how bad it is. How unhealthy. Why?" She asks me, her voice shaking.

"Hon, eating isn't just going to happen again. You need time to recover, start with a little bit," I say gently.

"Kim... Don't you know why I came in here?"

"You didn't," I say, thoroughly alarmed.

"No," Alexes replies, "I didn't. I did seriously consider it. I have before. But I never go through with it. Either I get too scared or someone catches me and stops me. This time someone caught me." She looks and me and smiles a small, wry smile. "I've never done it. I don't think I could live with myself if I had."

Then she laughs, which is almost scarier than what's happening. "Not that it matters. I haven't been able to live with myself in such a long time anyway."

"Yes, it does matter! It matters a lot." I say firmly.

"Please don't be mad River. Please don't be mad," she begs me.

"I'm so sorry."

"Hey," I saw, taking her hand. "Don't be sorry. This is too big of a problem for just you. But you do need to come eat. Listen, it'll be okay. Out there, we're your friends. We aren't going to judge you. It's not fair that you've had to suffer through this at all. So here's what we're going to do. You're going to get yourself to calm down ok? And no, I'm not gonna leave so you can do that. I don't think I'm gonna leave you alone at all for a while actually. And then we're gonna go out, and eat. You don't have to eat everything, but your body does need some food. I'll be there every step of the way. And we're going to have a nice rest of the evening, ok?"

Alexes sniffles and nods.

"I just feel so bad," she says, "Jenny and you are both there for me and so is Liam but I'm still having these flip outs. It's not like I don't want to stop them. They just...happen."

"Alexes, don't worry. We will fix this time. For now, let's go enjoy a nice dinner alright?"

"Alright, don't tell Jenny. You can't tell her. At least not yet. Especially after our talk today.." Alexes says.

"Alexes, she needs to know these things. It's not fair to keep her out of the loop," I reply.

"Not tonight. I don't think I could handle it if I was the one who upset her tonight."

After standing there for a while, I capitulate in order to get her back to eat. "Fine, just please eat. If you eat, then I won't tell Jenny."

"I will Kim," Alexes replies, so we walk back to our seats, hand in hand.

When I sit, Liam turns to me in worry. "Everything alright?" he whispers to me, he brows furrowed in concern.

"Yes, I prevented her from doing anything really detrimental, and I got her to eat. She doesn't want us to tell Jenny." I say to him, looking over at Alexes who was fully immersed into a conversation with Zayn.

"Not tell Jenny? That will be tough. You know if Jenny finds out that you didn't tell her she will be even more pissed." Liam replied, freaking out.

"What could I do? It was the only way I could get her to eat."

"Fine, just make sure that Jenny does not find out!" By this point, Liam is close to whisper-shouting. Thank God it is loud in the restaurant, or else Jenny would have heard for sure.

"Liam, relax. I will get this figured out but you need to focus on getting Alexes to eat. Okay?"

"Alright," he agrees relaxing and subtly joining the conversation between Alexes and Zayn.

I turn back to my food which has gotten slightly cold by now but continue eating in silence. Jenny turns to me and gives me the, you have some explaining to do look. Yup, she saw us leave and now we are SOL.

I told her with my eyes that I would explain later so she turned back to her conversation with Harry and I back to my plate. I was able to eat in peace for a moment until Louis turned to me and asked "Every thing okay love?"

I nodded without saying anything because he caught me with the question mid-chew.

Once I finished chewing, I followed up with a "yeah, just some uh... girl issues.." trailing off I refuse to meet his eyes because I know he can tell it extends beyond these so called "girl problems" that I'm trying to brush off.

"Kimberley," he says trying to get me to look at him. "You know you can tell me anything right?"

"Yeah, I know just not this. I can't. It's not for me to tell." I mutter under my breath. Every time someone asks me something I don't want to answer.

Louis takes my face in his hand and turns me so I look at him.

"I mean it when I say you can tell me anything. I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to." he tries to reassure me but I know that I can't share Alexes' secret. It isn't mine to tell so it shall remain as an unspoken secret unless it's between me and Alexes, Jenny, or Liam.

I nod and say, "My food got cold" while staring down at my plate that had no more than five bites taken from it.

"Then we will bring it home with us love, and you can warm it back up when we get there." he tells me. I stay silent for the rest of the time we are there constantly getting looks from my group of friends. They know how loud I am but it's impossible for me to be light-hearted when I have so much on my mind.

I never would have expected things to have gotten this bad for her, it kills me. Hell, I will move into a shoe box under her bed if it meant I could keep an eye on her for as long as it takes for her to get through this.

The waitress kept coming back to check on us and in that time people had gotten desserts, more drinks and boxes for leftover food.

Finally, Louis asks for the check and pays the outrageous bill from our meals. Everyone sits and talks without noticing until Louis says "Alright guys and Ladies, let's head on out."

"What about the bill?" Liam asks.

"Already took care of it while you were all socializing," he replied with a smirk. We all stood up and started heading out though I waited for everyone else to go by me before I left the seating area.

Louis waited for me and as I walked past he took my hand in his. That action caught me off guard and I looked up at him. He smiled down at me and we continued walking without saying anything. That's when I realized that I hadn't grabbed my food. Oh well whatever, we were already out the door anyways.

Every one paused out in the parking lot and were discussing the best way to get back to the house. "We could always walk," Zayn suggested. "It really isn't too far from here."

"I could use some fresh air anyways," the first thing I had said in almost forty five minutes.

Jenny could tell I didn't want every one looking at me so she threw in a comment of her own. "I wouldn't mind walking in the moonlight, it would be romantic." She said while giving Harry the googley eyes.

"Oh come on, get a room" Niall joked.

"You're just jealous" Harry remarked. We all knew that was the couple's response every time one of us would make a sarcastic comment like Niall just did.

We all began walking in a cluster but I still managed to linger at the back of the group.

The night is very peaceful, few people walking down the streets and sidewalks, mostly couples like Jenny and Harry. All the glorious buildings of the city are lit bright. A few cars passing us every once in a while and to my surprise there aren't any insane fans following us even though it isn't that late at night.

There were a few conversations going on among our group but I didn't feel like getting involved in any of them, I don't talk much when I'm upset.

I'm not upset at Alexes though, and I hope she knows that I mean it when I tell her that, I'm upset with the fact that things had gotten this bad for my best friend and I had neglected to notice.

We walk for about a half an hour before we reach the house and the walk and fresh air definitely helped to clear my head a little bit. We all file into the house and everyone goes to change into some pajamas before re-gathering in the main room. When I returned in my shorts and tank top, I notice Alexes is socializing with Jenny as if nothing had happened tonight.

I wanted so badly to tell Jenny everything that had happened at dinner when I talked with Alexes in the bathroom. I know she hates to be left out of things. She thinks she can't do as much if she doesn't know immediately but she just lets us be and doesn't pester.

I hate making her wait, knowing that more people can help if I were just able to tell them. I just can't betray Alexes like that. I promised her that I wouldn't tell Jenny tonight so I'll wait until first thing tomorrow morning and no longer.

I slowly walk to join the rest of my friends and they slightly acknowledged my arrival knowing that I wasn't going to be doing too much talking.

I seriously considered just going to bed, but I knew I would just stay up to all hours of the night thinking. I tried to clear my head by sitting and listening in on my friends talk but I couldn't seem to catch an interest in anything they were discussing.

That was actually really odd to me because it was all the same topics that usually interest me; sports, music, etc. I still listened and considered joining the conversation but every time I thought about it, I could never figure out what to say.

Sports have always been one of Jenny's favorite topics. "When we get back to the U.S I need to take you guys to a Kings game!" she said with excitement. I chuckled to myself; Jenny loves sports more than you would think. When I first met her she was the last person I expected to be a major sports fan; but the more I got to know her, the more I realized her love for sports, especially hockey.

I could see Alexes was beginning to draw herself out of the conversation so I caught her attention and gave her a look that said, stay where you are. I didn't need her running off and being alone, the last thing we needed was an issue and if I were to follow Alexes out of the room, it would become a chain reaction.

When Alexes scooted back to her spot, I noticed Liam reach for her hand and It looked so adorable I had to force myself not to shout aww how cute.

As much bad that happens in any one's life, there is always the occasional good to offset it. Liam was her occasional good that I truly hope will become more of a long lasting good.

My two best friends seem to be new people when they are around these boys. Not new in a bad way or even in a hugely different way. They are new because they are so much happier with these guys around who made a habit of making everyone around them smile.

Louis took a seat next to me and said "Glad to see you smiling again, would be nicer if you would speak too" I stuck my tongue out at him and made it my goal to not talk for a while. He tried to get me to talk by tickling me but all that accomplished was making me squeal.

"Why are you tickling her?" Alexes asked Louis.

"Because she won't talk."

"Well then just do this," Jenny says and grabs my phone. "Now who should we text?" She says, scrolling through my texts.

i meant contacts not texts oops

at the end of that last sentence

I tried to get up to get my phone back from Jenny but Louis was still holding me back. I wanted my phone back but I couldn't let them win, it was like another contest for me and it was the same for Jenny, I could tell by the way she was grinning.

"What if we text Bayley? I'm sure he wouldn't mind hearing from you."

She teased. Now that was crossing a line, it's almost as bad as texting your friends ex as a joke, you just don't.

Bayley is that friend that you get close to and can just talk to. The issue with some of those friends is that they like to think things will go further than friendship. There were numerous occasions when Bayley had asked me to hook up with him and was convinced that I was just saying no because I wasn't ready. What he needed to realize is that he was a friend and nothing more and it took him a little while to catch on.

Though as much as I didn't want Jenny to text him, I couldn't lose this game. I sat there and shook my head at Jenny who began typing out a text.

The sucky part is that I know she is planning on sending that text unless I say something now. I give her the please don't look but I know very well that wasn't good enough.

"Sent!" she chirped, "Now let's wait for his reply." She said smiling at me. The issue with her method is that none of the boys knew the story behind Bayley and I didn't really care to share it.

"Okay, who is this Bayley character and why is texting him going to make her talk?" Harry asked, voicing the same question that was most likely on the minds of the other boys.

"And what did you say to him anyways?" Alexes asks walking over to where Jenny stood with my phone. She read the text and chuckled making me curious as ever but I couldn't give in, I had to be more stubborn.

"Okay, not fair," Niall whined, "we want to know the story."

I sighed and could tell Jenny was more than happy to share my little issue with Bayley.

"Well," she started to tell the story when my phone went off. Jenny read the text out loud, "Yeah I remember, why do you ask?"

Oh god, Jenny asked if he remembered and i sighed again grabbing a pillow off the couch to bury my face into.

"Like I was saying, Bayley is this guy who, for a lot of sophomore year, asked Kim to do stuff," she made it sound really bad the way she was explaining. Now I can feel myself turning bright red, thank goodness my face is hidden by this ... never mind, Louis wanted the pillow, I think to myself as Louis steals the pillow from my grasp.

The phone goes off again and reads "Are you serious? Or are you pranking me?" Now I need to talk or Jenny is going to trow me into a ditch that I won't be able to get out of. Unless she's bluffing... I can't take that risk though so I speak up and say "okay seriously Jenny. Phone, now." I jump up off the couch and take my cell from her hand and check the texts.

She wasn't lying about texting Bayley, but she was messing with me and all that had really been said was simple heys and what's ups. Well played Jenny, I thought very loudly, as if she could actually hear what I was thinking.

"She speaks!" Louis shouts jokingly.

"Yeah yeah, I speak." I say turning to stick my tongue out at Louis.

I wander back over to the couch and plop down clutching my phone in my hand tightly this time." So what's the rest of this story Jenny was telling us?" Zayn asks me.

"I so don't want to go into this, it's just weird and awkward and eesh," I say shuddering at the memory of the texts Bayley would send to me. Rather disturbing texts, always starting as normal conversations and ending by me saying no and ignoring the rest of his texts.

"Tell us anyways" Zayn prompted, looking genuinely interested in the remainder of the story.

"Fine he kept asking me to hook up and do all this shit and ugg it was gross. But I kept telling him no and he never wanted to listen, he figured being good friends meant friends with benefits and boy was he wrong" I finish my short summary with another shudder.

Louis puts his arm around my shoulders and asks genuinely concerned, "Did he ever try anything?"

"Oh god no! If he ever did he would have no balls I would have kicked him so hard." I say, trying to lighten the mood of the conversation that Louis turned serious.

"Well, doesn't sound like that bad of a story. You are a good looking lass." Zayn says to me with a smirk.

"It was bad! It was gross and it made me want to burn my eyes with some of the stuff he said to me" I nearly shouted, throwing a pillow at Zayn's face.

"Hey, not the face," he says laughing so being sarcastic as I am, I grab a pillow while i stand up and start hitting him on the head with it. Everyone starts laughing and it erupts into a full-fledged pillow fight.

We are all having such a great time that we don't notice that we have been goofing off for a few hours. When I catch a glimpse at the clock, I notice it's almost midnight, wow I think to myself.

All the pillows end up scattered across the room because people are disarming each other and throwing the pillows out of reach. Alexes yawns and looks like she is about to fall asleep sitting on the couch.

"What time is it?" Jenny asks, noticing Alexes falling asleep.

"About midnight," I respond before turning to Alexes and saying "Hon, you might want to go get some sleep."

She just grumbles and ignores my suggestion. I look over at Liam and say, "She needs to go to bed." He nods and stands up in order to get her of the couch and into her bed.

"We all might want to consider turning in," I suggest, remembering Niall's comment about how buys our week is going to be.

"But I'm not tired," Harry whines to Jenny who chuckles at his childish response.

"You need sleep," she tells him, acting all motherly.

"Come tuck me in at least?" he says batting his eyes at Jenny.

"How could I say no to that" she says before planting a small kiss on the tip of his nose.

Jenny and Harry leave the room and Zayn and Niall imitate the way the couple was interacting. "Oh pweease love bug" Niall mocks in a baby-like voice.

"Oh of course hunny bunches," Zayn responds in a just as irritatingly childish voice.

Louis and I laugh at the way they mock the couple while they leave the room, knowing that if Jenny heard their mocking they would get and ear-full.

"To be honest, I'm not tired in the slightest," I say to Louis "Are you?"

He shakes his head and suggests," Why don't we go for a little walk outside, I know you've got things on your mind."

"Alright, sounds lovely. "I say to him as he gets to his feet. When I start getting up, he offers me a hand up and I take it. What I wasn't expecting was for him to not let go and instead, continue walking with me hand in hand.

I admit that I don't mind holding hands with him considering that I've developed a major "crush" on him since we started getting to know each other. We get outside and stay silent until we are out of earshot from the house, even though no one would be listening in on our conversation.

"What's been bothering you?" He asks a note of concern noticeable in his voice.

"If I could tell you I would," I replied, giving him a similar answer to the one I gave when he asked last time while we were out to dinner.

I hate not being able to tell him, I know I can trust him with any secret or any problem but since this isn't my secret to tell then I can't let him into the group of people who know.

"I'm sorry. I really want to tell you but it isn't my secret to tell." I continue.

"Don't worry love, I can just tell you are taking it hard and the change is noticeable in you. You're usually so happy and fun-loving but ever since the train ride back from the castle you've been... what's the word, I guess off."

I had hoped it wasn't that noticeable bit hoping for that was pointless, when it came to strong emotion I wasn't really the best at hiding it. I used to be so good at bottling up my feelings but when I met Jenny and Alexes, they helped me to learn how to express my feelings in a more positive way.

Ever since my friends have started helping me I have felt like they were my sisters in a way, as close as family. To have someone in my family hurting so bad brought back old memories of an old friend of mine. I've had many friends who had eating disorders because I used to hang out with the so called popular group. At one point my friend was bullied so often, being told she was too fat to be popular, that she became bulimic. At first I didn't notice and that's why I hate that I didn't notice when it was happening to my new best friend. These disorders get so bad that people become hospitalized, my old friend became hospitalized and it still hurts today, knowing that I didn't help her.

I had been silent for a long period of time but Louis was patient. While I was lost in my thoughts and memories, he walked along with me and I knew that I could trust him with anything. "I want to tell you what's going on but you can't judge and you can't tell anyone that you know." I said to him as I exited the puzzle that I know as my mind

"I promise," he said and I knew he meant it but still I was hesitant seeing as though it involved someone who isn't me.

"Okay, well here's the thing, Alexes, Jenny, and I are best friends and you know that, it's obvious." I pause not exactly sure how to continue.

"Well the three of us help each other through hard stuff like the issue you know that I have." I glance at him to see if he genuinely cares or if he's just trying to make me feel better.

Once I determine that he actually cares, I continue to explain. I give him the basic over view of Alexes' issues and tell him what happened in the bathroom with Alexes at dinner.

"I feel like I should have been able to stop it and so does Jenny but there's no way we could have known right?" I ask rhetorically before continuing. "The issue with that is that I should have known; I should have been able to spot the signs. I had friends who did the same things to themselves, they were anorexic and bulimic and when they all were, I was accused of it because I was under weight. I feel like I'm to blame for all that happening to my friends, we don't even talk anymore." I finish feeling slightly more relaxed knowing that someone other than me knows a big part of my past school years.

Louis hugs me and I probably sounded like I needed it because part way through my story my voice began cracking with every other sentence. "It's not your fault love." He said to me trying to convince me the same thing I've wanted to believe for years but could never be convinced of.

"Thanks for walking with me and listening to me." I say to him changing the subject, but only slightly in hopes that he wouldn't notice the shift in topic.

"Any time, Just know I'm here for you to talk to when you need it," he reminded me.

I smiled at him and said, "I'll remember that, we might want to head back before the sun comes back up though," He chuckles and we head back to the house. When we get back inside we say good night and head to our respective rooms attempting not to wake anyone else.

When I crawl into bed I realize how good it feels to not have all that weight on your chest. Content with knowing that, I fall asleep.


	13. Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

I must have slept in because when I wake up I can hear the voices of most everyone else coming from the other room. I'm still tired but decide against falling back asleep when I hear a knock on my door. I slowly shuffle over to the door to see who it is when they knock again. "I'm coming, Jesus Christ just calm your shit," I say as I turn the handle and open the door. I'm greeted by a smiling Jenny holding a plate of food.

"I was just trying to be nice and bring you breakfast," she says walking past me into my room. I knew exactly why she was in my room this morning; to talk about what happened last night.

"I promised her I wouldn't tell you last night and I was planning on explaining it this morning." I began but she cut me off "Is it what I think it is? Did she actually do it? Has she ever actually done it before or was that the first time?" Jenny was bombarding me with all these questions and I knew the answers to all of them but I let her finish talking before I answered.

"Jenny, first answer; It is what you think but she didn't do it, I got to her in time before she could do anything so she didn't actually do anything. Next answer, she has never done it before but she has told me she has thought about it and also when she has tried, was stopped by someone else or couldn't bring herself to do it." I looked at Jenny's face and could tell she wasn't happy about it.

"I would have told you last night, but the only way I could get her to eat was if I promised not to tell you right then." I continued, wanting so badly for my friends to be truly happy.

"I understand," she muttered. "Sometimes I just wish she wasn't so nervous about me knowing these things. You might want to eat your breakfast before it gets cold though." She finishes with a smile before standing up and walking out of my room.

I grabbed the plate and began eating as I walked out to where my friends were. Some of them were also still eating which means I hadn't woken up too late. Though when I looked at the time I saw that it was almost noon.

"Holy shit," I muttered under my breath. I never sleep that late. I walked over to join my friends on the couches to finish my food. I was just in time to hear what today's plans were.

"So basically," Niall was saying "we have a signing that we need to go to and we still haven't been told by Paul if we can bring you three."

"That's fine if we can't go," I said with my mouth half full. "We can always hang out together and find something fun to do" I finished smiling over at my two best friends. We discuss a few different scenarios for a little while until Liam gets the phone call everyone has been waiting to tell us if we can go with them to the signing. Shortly after Liam answers, he begins to smile and we all know what the answer is.

"Thank you so much Paul," he says into the receiver before hanging up. He opens his mouth like he was going to talk but Jenny cut him off, "Wait, don't say anything. We all know the answer by the way you reacted," she says while attempting to stifle a giggle.

"He says we don't have to be ready to leave until three so we have a few hours of free time." Liam informs us as we chatter about how much fun this is going to be. In that free time I knew exactly what Jenny was going to do first. We sat there a little while longer and every one determined a shower schedule and I was in the middle with Jenny and Alexes after me. Luckily that gives me time to keep an eye on the two of them while Jenny confronts Alexes.

As the group of us began to separate to get ready, I approached Jenny. "I know you are planning on talking to Alexes and I'm not going to tell you what to say; just try and be gentle with her, don't lose your temper."

"Why would I lose my temper at her?" she questioned, "I know that she doesn't mean to leave me out just to spite me."

"I know I just… I know how difficult these things can be and for everyone involved it can be very stressful," I finished.

Jenny nodded and walked over to where Alexes was talking with Niall and Liam. I stayed within hearing distance so that I could step in if I needed to; but I know they won't get into an argument, I just want to give myself an excuse to eaves drop.

Once Jenny pulls Alexes off to the side all she asked was "You trust me right?"

When she asked that, Alexes was genuinely surprised. At first she didn't respond but once she was able to process the question she was just asked, she replied by saying "Of course I do. Why would you ask me that?'

Jenny shrugged and said "Kim told me what happened at dinner last night, that's all."

Alexes looked to the floor in shame, she doesn't like telling people these problems because she's afraid of being judged. For a little while my two friends stood there in silence until out of nowhere, Jenny hugged Alexes and whispered something that I wasn't able to hear from where I was standing.

As I watched my friends, Liam approached me and asked, "Is everything alright between those two now?"

"Yeah, Jenny was never angry, only concerned for her friend." I told him as I turned to head towards my room to gather my stuff.

As I walked down the hall to my room, I could hear Jenny and Alexes laughing, along with Harry, Liam, and Zayn.

Hearing my friends laughing made me happy but I didn't realize that I had a huge grin on my face until Niall passed by me and said, "Why so chipper?"

"Just glad to have such great friends," I replied as I continued to my room.

I was looking through the clothes I had brought with me when there was a knock on my door. Louis popped his head in and said, "Your turn love."

"I don't know what to wear though, I know it's not a huge event or anything, but there is going to be a lot of people there and with us there with you guys I'm sure there will be fans judging me. I mean I'm only an average person and Alexes and Jenny won't get any hate or criticism because they're so pretty and for certain two of the sweetest girls I have ever met." I just stopped talking because I realized I was beginning to ramble. "Sorry," I muttered.

"Why are you even worrying love?" he asked. "No one is going to judge you and if they do it just shows that they are jealous that you know us and they don't."

"I guess, but even with that being the case, I still don't know what to wear." I say chuckling under my breath. Louis walks over to where I'm sitting at my suitcase and pulls out my pair of teal skinny jeans and my white and grey striped top. "Here, problem solved." he says, handing me the clothes. "Now go shower before every one complains," he says with a laugh as he heads out of the room.

Once he is gone, I run my fingers gently along the fabric of my outfit, well more like our outfit. He always seems to make me feel at ease, and he always helps me feel beautiful. I snatch up the clothes and get undressed. As I slip on my robe, Jenny waltzes in to grab her sneakers, which somehow landed in Alexes and my room.

"Oh, man! Sorry, Kim! I forgot you were going into the shower." She yelled, spinning on the balls of her feet and covering her eyes. She really did look stunning, with a white v-neck tucked into a mini skirt that flowed out, accenting her hourglass shape. Over her v-neck rested a beat up jean jacket, one of Jenny's staple pieces, accented by a long pendant necklace with a silver heart on the end. Her sneakers showed off her playful side. Next to her, I felt like my outfit didn't make the cut, but I didn't care. It was Louis' choice.

"It's fine, Jenn. I will just be heading into the shower." I replied, giggling.

"Why are you so giggly?" she questioned, playfully cocking her eyebrow.

"Oh, just really happy." I replied, looking down at my fuzzy pink robe.

"Happy about?" she pressed on. I knew what she wanted to hear, but I wasn't going to admit it. I wanted Jenny to squirm a little bit.

"Oh, just life." I giggled, sticking my tongue out to show her I held all the cards.

"More like life with Louis." she said with a smirk. Jenny is one of those girls who is blatantly honest and says what people are too scared to admit.

"Oh, shut up Jenny!" I said bursting out laughing. I grabbed my things and ran into the bathroom.

I turned the water on in the shower to hot, feeling the water drops dance on my hands, gradually getting warmer and warmer. Finally, when it reached my desired temperature, I climb in, feeling as the warm water overtakes me and steals my breath away with its heat. I proceed with the usual shower activities, letting the water wash away my troubles and stress. Suddenly, I hear a crashing noise and the door slam open.

"What the hell?!" I yelp, covering up my body even though no one had peeked yet.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it! I really had to pee and there is only one bathroom," a familiar Irish voice responds.

"Niall, no peeking!" I warn, "You peek and I just might have to kill you!"

"I won't if you won't!" He replies jokingly, as I hear him unzip his zipper and a steady stream of liquid.

"Well, this is awkward." I murmur, my arms still covering my parts.

"Heh, yeah." he chuckled nervously.

"Niall, next time, use a fucking bush." I say laughing.

"Aw, but this is some real quality time we are getting, Kim!" he jokes, zipping his pants back up.

As he opens the door to leave, he yells back at me, "Oh, and we are leaving in fifteen whether you are ready or not." And with that, he closes the door.

Shit, fifteen minutes. I rush to finish my shower and blow my hair dry. I climb into my clothes, still slightly wet. My hair is tolerable, and I decide to pack a bag in order to do my makeup in the car.

"Come on, Kim! We are leaving!" Alexes calls.

"We are gonna leave without you!" she yells again as I gather my stuff and throw on my gray Toms.

When I approach, she is linked arms with Liam and Zayn, who looks snazzy as always in a leather jacket and a black tee. Liam looks dapper in his plaid button up, same as always. Harry is wearing a navy blue tee and a pair of blue jeans, bringing out the green in his eyes. "Well let's head out!" Harry yells, pulling on a gray beanie.

"Harry!" Jenny squeals, "You are going to give people the wrong impression!" Noticing our open mouths and astonished expressions, she exclaims, "Nothing happened! Gosh, get your heads out of the gutter."

"Ok... well we should go." Louis remarks awkwardly and motions for the door.

"You are a goof," Jenny giggles, ruffling Harry's curly hair.

"Hey, not the hair! These girls are coming just to see it!" he says, flipping his hair to the side and wrapping his arms around her.

Jenny's expression seems to change as he says that. Her brows furrow and she looks off to the side. That is not a happy Jenny face. This can't be good.

"Hey, Jenn? I have some lady issues to discuss with you." I say, knowing Harry will not want to listen in on that. Sure enough, he lifts his hands up defensively.

"Uh, I will leave you two to discuss," he scurries off next to Louis, wrapping his arms around Louis' shoulders.

"Jenn Jenn, what's wrong?" I ask her, grabbing her hand and resting my head on her shoulder as we walk to the car.

"I guess I just forgot. You know? I just forgot that they were famous. Fuck, those girls. I mean, I am confident, even cocky sometimes, but those girls are going to be crazy. I don't know what the hell I am going to do." she says, burying her face into her palm.

"Jenny, you are so pretty, and Harry is crazy about you! You have nothing to worry about." I say, trying to console her.

"I guess I can't worry about it until it happens, yeah?" she says taking a deep breath and running forward to catch up with the group.

"You are crazy, you know that?" I yell at her, running after all my friends.

On the ride there, I tried to apply my makeup, but on top of all the bumps of the road, Niall, Zayn, and Louis were trying anything to mess me up. After trying to reapply my eyeliner five times, I finally gave up and asked Jenny for help. Jenny and I have very different styles, so she took her liquid eyeliner and swiftly swept a line on my upper eyelid. Then, Alexes stepped in and applied mascara and blush to my pale cheeks. Then, Jenny came up and they both worked me over, Jenny adding a silver and black smoky eye and Alexes giving me a strawberry shaded lip.

"Gosh I love makeovers," Jenny squeals and Alexes giggles.

"Could you be any less girly, please?" I plead.

To shut me up, Jenny yells, "Stop moving, stupid! You are going to make me ruin your makeup!"

"Ok! All done!" Alexes calls, breathing heavily as though she has run a marathon. The two take a step back, admiring their work.

"Nice," Jenny says. She returned back to her seat between Niall and Alexes. When we had first gotten into the car, I figured it was an accident that she didn't sit next to him, but more and more, I believe she did it because she is scared to get hurt today.

When we get there, the line of people I see seems to extend for miles on end. We get out and are ushered to the table we will be at. Once we're all situated, the security guards back off a little and chaos erupts. Our table is located off to the side, so we can see the action. Jenny picks the seat so she can see all the action. Suddenly, Lou Teasdale appeared with Lux, and Alexes melted. "Aw! How cute?!" she squeals, playing peek-a-boo with Lux.

"Aw, hello there!" Jenny gently says to Lux, reaching out her hand to Lou, "Hi, I am Jenny. We have been the ones hanging out with the boys."

"Ah, you are Harry's flavor of the week." Lou says extending out her arm as Jenny's eyes widen.

"Please, I am just kidding you! Gosh, that was a mean one of me! I'm sorry, love; it is a pleasure to meet you." Lou says, laughing.

"Oh my gosh, you scared me," Jenny exhales, clearly worried by what Lou originally said.

While Alexes played with Lux, Jenny and I watched all the girls walking by.

"Oh man! See that girl over there? Are those shorts or underwear?" I cry out, laughing.

"Haha, yeah." Jenny says, nervously chomping on her nails.

"Jenn, don't worry. He isn't going to do anything wrong. Harry really likes you." I say, trying to sound reassuring.

"I know, I just feel kind of insecure." she admits, biting the side of her cheek.

Jenny never tells anyone she is feeling insecure... ever. "Jenny, you look mega sexy! You have nothing to worry about!" I say, laying my head on her shoulder.

"Kim! Kim! Hello!" this one girl yells from the crowd. She is wearing a black shirt and a pair of bright purple skinnies. Her hair is brown with streaks of bright pink. She seems like a person I would get along with.

"Oh, hello there!" I call back, causing my cheeks to become even pinker than Alexes' blush already made them.

"Jenny, how are you and Harry?" a girl in a pink shirt and short shorts yells.

Jenny, taken aback, confidently calls back, "That is for you to ask him, love! Give him a kiss on the cheek from me!" Well, at least her confidence is back, I think to myself as she winks.

"Alexes, I love your top!" A girl yells to Alexes. Alexes blushes and tugs on her adorable loose cream tank top.

I turn to my friends, "Did anyone else think these girls would recognize us?"

"No, never!" Jenny yells, still shocked by the attention.

"Ladies, come here! We want to meet you!" A couple confident lasses yell at us. Immediately, we turn to the closest security guard, who nods our way and escorts us over to the girls.

"Uh, I don't know you guys. I don't want to seem like I am taking the spotlight away from the boys. I like attention, but not this much." Jenny says, rising and heading in the other direction. Alexes looks at me, concerned but understanding, and soon follows after Jenny.

"Wait guys, we should stay. The boys asked us to be here." I pipe up.

"You are right," Jenny says, returning and taking a deep breath. She sits in her seat, acting as though she is really interested in her phone.

After a few hours of fangirl watching, one of the managers yell out, "Alright ladies and gentlemen, the boys are going to take a break! They will continue signing in ten minutes."

Immediately, the boys dash over to us, all except for Niall who needed to visit the little boys' room.

"God, that boy goes to the bathroom a lot, doesn't he?" I joke.

"You have no idea," Louis calls wrapping his arm around me.

The girls behind us start to scream, and we all hustle out the back door to avoid their watchful eyes.

As soon as we reach outside and the doors close, Harry plants a kiss right on Jenny. "My God, these girls are crazy!"

"What do you mean?" Alexes ponders, crossing her arms around her chest.

"This one girl steps right up and kisses me on the cheek! Just like that! I couldn't believe it! Then, she is just like, 'That was from Jenny.'" Harry says; his face in total confusion.

Alexes, Jenny, and I try hard to stifle a giggle, but soon go into a full on laugh, snorting and everything.

"What?" Liam asks, smiling with his eyebrows cocked in interest.

"I told her..." Jenny laughs, "I told her to do that. I can't believe she actually did it!" By this point, Jenny is sitting on the floor, head back in laughter. Alexes is bent over, clutching her stomach as she chuckles. I am laughing so hard, my stomach feels like it is going to explode.

"Wait, you told her to do that?" Harry asks, his face surprised, but adoring at Jenny.

"Yeah." Jenny bursts between laughs.

"You frisky devil!" he laughs, and soon, all the boys are laughing along with us.

I hear the door open from behind me and I watch as Niall walks out, confused by all the laughing. "What is all the laughing for? Get your shit together here people!"

Niall's comment only makes us laugh more, and Alexes nudges Jenny in some sort of secret joke.

Suddenly, Paul emerges from behind Niall, waving his finger to say, 'Time to wrap it up.'

"Well, that is our cue." Louis says, giving each of us girls a hug as he enters the building.

"We should go on a date, tonight. Just the two of us." Harry whispers to Jenny, giving her a peck on the lips and entering the building behind him.

"See you ladies later," Liam says, kissing us each on the cheek, but holding Alexes' kiss longer.

"Ooh La La!" Jenny gushes, giving me a nudge in my side. I can't help but giggle, and Alexes giggles excitedly but plays it off by sticking her tongue out at me.

"Later girls" Zayn calls, giving each of us a squeeze, followed behind by a waving Niall.

"Well, might as well go back inside," Jenny says, winking at us. As she opens the door, the sound of screaming girls hits us like a speeding train.

"Holy fuck!" I yell.

"What did you say?" Jenny and Alexes yell back simultaneously.

As we sit, we watch as the boys sweetly wave at the crowd. One by one, girls walk up, and quickly, the boys make each individual girl feel special. At lightning speed, a girl walks up, hands the boy a CD, and each boy tells the girl a little something, kisses her hand, or gives her a hug, making her melt.

Suddenly, a brilliant idea pops into my head. "Watch this!" I yell at the girls, popping up and heading for the line. My two friends turn to each other, a giggly but suspicious look on their faces. When I reach the line, I tap this girl who is all done up in a British flag tee and black skinny jeans. "Mind if I cut you in line? I am just trying to do something funny."

The girl turns bright red, runs her finger through her hair, and says, "Yeah, I mean sure. I mean, hello. You are Kim, right? The boys' friend Kim?"

Sensing her nerves, I giggle and reply, "Yes, hon. Don't forget, though, I was a fan just like you. No need to be nervous!" At this she sighs.

"I must sound like a freak!" she cries, turning to her friend smiling beside her.

"Look at me! I surround myself with freaks! The boys are no exception!" Finally, I could tell I put her at ease and we begin to talk about various things: her life in England, my life in America, both of our loves of singing, etc. We found we had a lot in common. I knew she would get along swimmingly with Jenny and Alexes, so I called them over to join me.

"What's up, buttercup?" Jenny says in her own bubbly way.

"You are dating Harry, right?" the girl named Lizzie asks.

Immediately, Jenny turns pink and stares at her sneakers.

"You kidding? They are adorable together!" I blurt out, not thinking of what my words would cause. Suddenly, girls who overheard me surround Jenny, pestering her with all these questions about Harry. Overwhelmed, Jenny tries to escape but can't find her way out of the madness. Amongst the chaos, Alexes and I lose sight of her. Out of nowhere, a bodyguard appears and grabs Jenny, helping pull her out of the crowd. I notice her eyes welling with tears. She rushes to the bathroom. Wanting to race after her, Alexes and I attempt to push our way through the mass of girls, only to find no such luck. Soon enough, Jenny comes back, eyes puffy, and sits back at the table.

Alexes and I shoot her a look to see if she is alright, and in response, she mouths 'I am fine, don't worry. I will watch your big plan.' I nod and turn to Alexes. "My God, I can't believe I did that! I really could have put Jenny in danger!"

"She will be fine, Kim. Jenny is strong. Don't worry. Just enjoy the moment." Alexes says, tenderly grabbing my arm.

In my mind, I created my little devious plan. I saw myself slowly reaching the boys table. Had I been in this place a month or so ago, I would have been freaking out and super nervous to meet them, but now, it felt normal and fun. Alexes finally made her way back to the table to enjoy the show. I got up to the table, and in my best fangirl voice, I gushed to Liam, who was sitting first, and cried, "Oh my God! I can't believe I am meeting you right now! I am such a huge fan!" Immediately, he burst out laughing signing my little CD and giving me a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek. After his kiss on the cheek, he whispered, "All these girls are filming this. Brace yourself for tumblr fame." At this, I laughed and moved on to Louis.

"Louis! Louis! I am in love with you! Let me be your Mrs. Tomlinson!" I dramatically scream.

"Paul! Remove this crazy girl!" Louis joked. Behind him, Paul giggled, breaking his stern exterior. "Just kidding, how are you sweetheart?" he asks, standing up to hug me.

I look at him seriously and respond, "Jenny just got mobbed. Just don't tell Harry."

His face turns to concern. "I have to tell him, you know that. Is she alright?"

"I haven't been able to talk to her yet, but she seems to be ok."

"Ok, move along, you psycho." Niall says, pulling me over to his station.

"Niall, talk to me Irish!" I squeal, returning to my joking facade.

I watch as Louis rises and walks to the end to whisper into Harry's ear. Harry's face turns from happy to horrified and he immediately looks at me, his eyes demanding answers. After a quick hug and kiss from Niall, I move on to Zayn, who looks at me sternly. After an intense staring contest, Zayn bursts out laughing and squeezes my hand. Before I even move, Harry grabs me and pulls me closer to him.

"What the hell happened back there? Is Jenny ok?" Harry's face was ridden with terror, obviously concerned. I realized that from his vantage point, he couldn't have seen anything that happened and certainly couldn't see Jenny.

"She is ok, no injuries. She looks a little shaken. I stupidly said something about how you two were together and these girls bombarded her before we could stop them." Suddenly, I felt myself being pulled away from the table to keep the speedy flow moving. "Harry," I concluded, "I am so sorry! I will make sure she is ok!" With that, I reached the end, and a bodyguard escorted me behind the posters at the rear of the boys' table.

When I saw Jenny, I ran after her and gripped her in a huge hug, stroking her curled blonde hair. "Kim that was the most terrifying thing of my life."

I pull back, looking her straight in the eyes, and cry out, "I am so sorry Jenny! I wasn't thinking. Forgive me? Are you ok?"

"Yeah, Kim. I am fine, just a little shaken. You didn't tell Harry, did you? I don't want to distract him." Shit. He already knew. I can't lie to her.

"I told Louis. He told him."

"Oh, I am surprised he hasn't come over here. Well, whatever. It is for the best. He is working." Her eyes sunk to the ground.

"Jenny, don't worry. I'm sure he wants to see you just as much you want to see him," I say, putting an arm on her shoulder.  
"Besides, you two do have that date together later," Alexes adds, then remains silent again as the crowd pushes around all of us.

"Are you sure? He seems rather interested in the fans," Jenny says quietly, her eyes finding her way to Harry, who was in the middle of winking flirtatiously to another girl.  
"Jenny, that's who Harry is. You know he's a natural born flirt," I try to comfort her.

"Harry! Your hair is gorgeous!" a girl shouts then.  
Harry replies to this with his well known line, "It's sex hair!" And flashes a winning smile.

"Jenny, are you okay?" Alexes asks.  
"Well, I definitely am jealous, I'll say that," Jenny replies bluntly.

"I think we're all feeling a little jealous," I say, watching Louis give one of the fans a tight hug.

"But Louis and Liam aren't flirting with every fan they meet, are they?"

"I don't know, they seem to get pretty friendly with some of them," Alexes inserts as Liam whispers something in a girl's ear. She turns and walks away with a huge smile on her face.  
We don't get a chance to discuss the issue further because a new group fans is making their way past out table.  
"Alexes! Are you and Liam dating?" someone shouts. Alexes' face turns a deep shade of red. She's rather shy around large crowds, especially ones full of questions.  
"Um..."

"Kim! You answer for her then!" someone else yells.  
"They are not in an official relationship, but they SHOULD be. You should see how the act around each other," I answer, and Alexes smacks me.  
"Hey! What was that for? I protest?

"Don't tell all these girls we are some couple! He doesn't know how I feel about him," she paused, "I don't even know if I understand how I feel about him." Alexes turned her face to her twiddling thumbs and looked over to Liam as if the sight of him would give her some clarity.

"Nothing says you have to figure that out today!" Jenny says, trying to make Alexes not feel confused.

"Yeah, look you two, your guys are into you! They are just really sweet to their fans." I say, trying to help them get out of their funk.

"I know, but it doesn't make me feel better." Jenny cried, worriedly crossing her arms around her chest and slinking deeper into her chair.

For the rest of the signing, she sat there, in the same position, watching intently as Harry hugged, kissed, and joked with hundreds of girls. Poor Jenny, all she could do was sit there and watch it. Same with Alexes, but Liam was much more G rated. The occasional kiss on the hand, the squeezing hug, and the laugh or two. Louis did more joking, but you could tell he wanted the crowd to move quickly and didn't want to partake in too much kissing and hugging.

The end of the day went by quickly, with the occasional friendly and sassy chit chat with the directioners. We all just wanted to get out of there, but the boys were basking in their spotlight. The line finally dwindled until there were a couple of girls dressed in these super cute handmade t shirts. One was obviously a Niall fan, with her shirt reading "Niall, kiss me I'm Irish!" Her brunette friend had a cut up one saying "Harry, let me be your Mrs. Styles." Then, their friend with glowing chocolate brown skin had one saying, "You are so amaZAYN, Mr. Malik!" The three of us watched as the Harry fan approached her idol, and she appeared to ask him for a kiss on the cheek. Being the charming one, he leaned over to kiss her on the cheek, but she planted one on his lips! Jenny turned bright red, and I couldn't tell if it was from anger or from shock, but probably both.

"Jenny, that girl is clearly a skank. Don't even worry about it." I said to her softly as the girl was carried away by Paul.

"Paul, my fucking hero." she mumbled through clenched teeth.

"Jenny, don't be mad at him. He is probably just as surprised as you are." Alexes whispered as she weaved her arm around Jenny's waist.

"Yeah, sure he is," Jenny mutters.

"Jenny, have some faith," I say softly.  
"Sorry, it's just..." Jenny trails off.  
"We know," Alexes finished for her, "I feel the same way you do. But we do have to remember that these guys are famous. There are always going to be adoring fans to run into."

Eventually, the crowd starts to thin out, and the boys finish up their last few signings. When they're done, they wave us over.  
"Thank god, I hate huge events like this," Alexes says as we make our way to their table.  
"You girls about ready to pack up?" Paul asks us.

"Yeah, I think it's about time we got out of this place," Jenny says, then abruptly stops. I can tell she didn't mean to say that out loud.

"Didn't you enjoy this?" Harry asks her, but Jenny doesn't reply.  
"Um, come on, let's just finish up," I say, trying to smooth over the situation.

"Yes, let's go," Alexes says. Paul takes the hint.  
"Alright ladies, the boys have to finish up, but if you'll just exit out that door to the left you should find the car waiting for you," Paul says, pointing. Jenny takes our hands and tugs us away before we can say anything else.

She lets go when we get outside.  
"I'm going on that date with Harry tonight...after all that it's going to be more than awkward," she says.  
"It'll be fine, Jenny. Don't worry so much," Alexes replies.

"I really hope you're right," she replies. just then, the boys appear outside, pushing each other around and goofing off as usual. Of course they're discussing the day's events.  
"Sex hair? Really Harry? You just HAD to say that didn't you," Louis says jokingly, pushing his way in front of him to make his way over to me.

"Hi love. Did you enjoy the signing?" he asks me.  
"Yeah, mostly," I say, thinking of all the girls that had gotten hugs and pecks on the cheeks from the guys and the jealousy of my friends and I.  
"Just mostly?" Liam repeats, joining us with Harry and Zayn in tow.  
"I'm pretty sure you'll find out later," Alexes says, glancing at Jenny, who has not gone to stand next to Harry like she usually does.

"Ready to go?" Paul asks us, joining the group.  
"Ready as ever," Jenny tells him. Paul looks to the boys, silently asking the same question, and they nod their consent.

We all get into the car and are driven off. The trip is long and silent, at least for the three of us. While we seem to all be brooding, the guys are all having a grand old time.

"Where are you and Harry going tonight?" I whisper to Jenny.  
"Not sure," she whispers back.  
"Somewhere romantic, I bet," Alexes teases, nudging her side.  
"Stop it. We're just going out, okay?" Jenny says, smiling a little.  
"Sorry," I say, "But you know it's true."

"Yeah, okay, we're probably going somewhere romantic," Jenny consents. She's bouncing slightly in her seat now, trying to contain the excitement I can see building up inside of her.  
"You're lucky, I wish I had something planned with Liam," Alexes says.  
"Yeah, and with Louis," I add.

We all look at each other for a moment and Jenny says, "Don't stress, it'll happen soon."

"I hope so," Alexes murmurs more to herself than us.  
"Okay well as soon as we get back to the house we have to decide what you're going to wear Jenny." I nearly shout, trying to get my friends pumped up.

"I want to do your hair, can I Jenny?" Alexes asks innocently.  
Jenny thinks for a short moment with serious consideration.  
"I guess I can let you do my hair," she says with a light-hearted and overly dramatic sigh.

I chuckle at my friends before I say, "I call doing your make up." Jenny looks scared for a moment so I have to reassure her "Not with insane colors or eyeliner silly. I'll make sure you look as beautiful as always."

"If I don't like it I'm fixing it though," Jenny says with a playfully stern tone. When we finally pull up to the front of the bungalow everyone starts to pile out. Jenny, Alexes, and I immediately link arms and start for the door.  
"I think we will have to turn sideways if we want to get inside like this." Alexes remarks jokingly.  
"We can squish together!" I say pulling my two friends close to me as we attempt to squeeze through the open door.

Our attempt to get inside has us laughing so hard we can barely walk straight or even breathe. Once we finally get inside we pause to let ourselves calm down from laughing so much.  
"Okay ladies, let's get a move on!" Jenny says to us as she grabs our wrists and directs us towards her room.

As soon as we step inside the room, Jenny goes straight towards the closet where she has all of her clothes neatly hung up; unlike Alexes and I who have them in our suitcases still.  
"Jenny, we will be right back. We have to go get our stuff to make you look prettyful." I say as Alexes and I head out of the room. It only takes about a minute for us to grab the makeup and hair products and begin our return to Jenny.

As we walk inside we see that Jenny is still standing in front of the closet trying to determine what to wear.

"Jenny!" I say, trying to momentarily get her attention away from the clothes.  
"Hmm?" she says still facing the closet.

"How are you planning on looking? Cute, fancy, sexy, what?"  
"I don't know!" she says, beginning to freak out.  
"Should I wear something like a dress? Or how about skinny jeans and a cute top?"  
"Jenny breathe for a sec." I tell her in attempt to get her to clear her mind.  
"Okay, now visualize a date with Harry. What are you wearing?"

She thinks for a moment and Alexes decides to add "If it helps, I'm going to do your hair half up, half down in loose natural ringlet curls."  
After another brief moment Jenny says "I've got it! I'm going to wear my brown leather jacket over the pastel pink top; and for the pants I will wear my ripped skinny jeans."

"What about shoes? You can never forget to plan the shoes."I say.

"Of course Kim, miss shoe addict." Alexes teases.  
"Right! Uh... I think I will go with my cream colored wedges, those would look cute with this outfit right?" she asks, looking for our approval.  
"I love it, now let's get to hair and makeup." I say while Alexes and I guide Jenny to the bathroom in order to have adequate lighting.

As Alexes plugs in the curling iron she glances over at me as if she were afraid I was going to do something. I try and make it light-hearted by saying "Wrong thing, doesn't straighten."  
This apparently wasn't the response Alexes wanted because she sighed and turned back to the rest of the hair products.

As Alexes began to work on Jenny's hair, I began pulling out my makeup and coordinating soft pastel colors to accent Jenny's features. I decided on a light rose colored blush, a light, golden eye shadow accented by dark brown eyeliner, and a light peach lip gloss.

All the basic makeup necessities were a given; the base, mascara, primers, etcetera.

It took Alexes about twenty minutes to finish Jenny's hair and they weren't doing much talking which bugged me even though I knew I wouldn't be talking while doing Jenny's makeup.

Before I began to apply her makeup, Jenny felt she had to approve of the colors beforehand.  
"Okay," she said. "I approve of the colors, you may begin." I chuckled at her response and began to apply her makeup. Her look was quickly coming along and Alexes assisted me by making sure the foundation and blush were even. I could have done it on my own but she wanted to help out.

Once we finished with primping Jenny, we stepped back to admire our work.  
"Brilliant." I say to myself.  
"You look amazing Jenny." Alexes tells her.  
Jenny didn't want to sit any longer so she got up and examined her new look in the mirror.

"Thanks guys, I love it." she says beaming with excitement for the date.  
"Now go get changed and don't mess up your hair or makeup" Alexes says to her. we decided to make her wait to have us do our beautification before she got dressed in case anything spilled because that would be my luck.

Alexes and I finish cleaning up our stuff in the bathroom and head back to Jenny's room. We wait a few seconds and then I knock.  
"Hey jenny, you almost ready in there?"

"Just come in guys we are all girls here." She replies through the door.  
At that, Alexes and I walk in and see she is already changed and sitting on the end of the bed. "Yup, all girls but you're already dressed so what difference does it make?" I remark sarcastically.

"Stand up girlie!" Alexes directs.  
"Geez, pushy much?" Jenny and I both say.  
"I can't help it, I'm excited for Jenny going on her first date with Harry" she says in that innocent tone of hers.

"Yeah, first date... I'm so nervous guys, what if something goes wrong?" Jenny asks us.  
"Oh hon, don't stress. It'll go amazingly and you will tell us everything once you get back." I say with a smile.

Jenny smiles back but I can still see the nerves eating at her.

"Okay, group hug time" I say as i give Alexes and Jenny a huge bear hug. The three of us begin laughing and we sit down on the bed.  
"What if something does go wrong though?" Jenny asks genuinely concerned.  
"You will have your phone with you, if something goes wrong you text or call either one of us. Understood?" I say in an almost parent like manner.

Jenny nods and Alexes continues where I left off, "Even with that in mind, nothing is going to go wrong. Just be happy that you are going on a date with the one and only Harry Styles" Jenny smiles one of her heart warming smiles that make her eyes shine with pure joy.

Her smiles are so contagious that she got me and Alexes grinning along with her. we sit there in happiness until we hear Harry at the bedroom door. "Are you ready to go love?" he asks Jenny. Still smiling, she stands up and says "Yes, absolutely." As Jenny walks towards Harry you can see his amazement at how breath-takingly gorgeous she is.

Harry puts his arm out for Jenny like a true gentleman and walks her out to the car for their date.  
"We need to do something fun too, think we could get the guys to play truth or dare with us?" I ask Alexes.  
"I'm sure we could, but it might get out of hand," she said.  
"That's when it's the most fun River!" I say to her and then proceed to race out of the room to gather all of the boys.

It was easy to round them up because Liam was watching Niall and Louis play Fifa and Zayn was just chilling in his room. The part that took me the longest was getting Louis and Niall to pay attention, that required letting them finish their round.

Once they finally finished playing, I suggested playing truth or dare and everyone was all for it except for a slightly more cautious Liam. Once Alexes convinced him to play we were all re-locating outside around the fire.

"Before we start we need to establish some rules." Liam says  
"Alright, rule one not chickening out or lying, rule two no one gets hurt if possible, rule three make them good, not stupid cheesy things." I say, directing the third rule at Alexes and Liam who are the less care free of the group.  
"Who goes first?" Niall asks, obviously ready to get this game started.  
"Since you thought of the game you go first." Zayn says to me. Since he decided to make me go first I picked him.  
"Okay fine. Zayn truth or dare?" I ask him with a challenging tone in my voice.

"Dare" he answers without a second thought.  
I think of a good dare, and I'm starting out small.  
"Okay, shave both your legs."  
Niall begins laughing and Zayn looks slightly confused at the dare.  
"What? Are you chicken or something?" Louis asks him.  
"N-no!" he stutters as he stands to retrieve the razor.

"Hurry back dear!" I shout after him sarcastically causing him to give me a glare over his shoulder.

"I have an idea for a way someone can cop out on a dare" Louis whispers to me. I am instantly intrigued by his comment and say "Oh really?"  
"Here, follow me" he says standing up and offering me his hand. I take his hand and head inside with him and he walks toward the kitchen.  
"Are you suggesting what I think you are?" I ask slightly surprised.

"Depends on what you're thinking" he replies with a grin. He then pulls out a few shot glasses, enough for each of us plus one, and reaches into a new cabinet and pulls out two bottles. "Here, take these" he says handing me the two large, clear bottles. As he gathers the shot glasses, I look at the labels of the bottles and read vodka and tequila.

"I like your plan" I say flashing a sly smile. Once we get back outside, Zayn has already saved three quarters of his first leg and pauses when he sees what I am carrying.

"This isn't legal," Liam says in that fatherly way of his.  
"Nothing bad will happen, I promise." Louis reassures him. Liam isn't very happy but allows the alcohol to stay. We set the bottles and cups on the table and take our seats again,

"So what's all this for?" Niall asks Louis.  
"It's in case someone decides they don't want to answer what they're asked or do what they're dared to do." he answers.  
"Can we use it for dares too?" Zayn asks as he continues onto his second leg. I nod, smiling as if I was plotting something.

"Sweet, I know what the next person that gets a dare from me is doing!" he says excitedly. It takes another two minutes for him to finish shaving his legs but once he is done we all cheer and he chooses the next person to go.

"Alexes, truth or dare?"

"Truth, definitely truth." she replies immediately.

"Okay uh.." he says, pausing to think of a good question to ask her.

He finally thinks of a question and asks "If the bloke you fancy turned into an animal, what sort of animal would they become and why?"

"That question isn't fun!" Niall complained. "Ask her something like "Has she ever gone a full day commando!"

"I agree with Niall on this one," Liam says grinning devilishly.

Alexes' face flushes bright red in embarrassment.

"Okay fine Niall, I will go with your question, Alexes, what he said."

"What the hell Niall? No that's just no." she says her face still tinted pink from blushing.

"Okay! You choose now!" I say to her cheerfully.  
"Okay uhm, truth or dare Niall?" she asks, most likely for revenge.

"I pick dare!" he says excitedly.

"Kim, help me think of something," she pleads.  
"That's not fair!" Niall whines.  
"Oh boo hoo! if you don't like it you drink and forever be known as a chicken shit," I say to him.

He sighs and I pull Alexes off to the side and let her choose between a few options. When she decides we walk back and she says, " I dare you to give Zayn a hickey while giving him a lap dance. Two ideas combined courtesy of Kim."

Everyone bursts out laughing except Zayn, "That's not cool guys, why me?" He asks.  
"First person that came to mind, plus you chose to ask Niall's question, sort of like double revenge," Alexes answers with a grin.

Niall stands up and walks to Zayn and before he does anything I say "Wait! We need music for this!" and I jump up and run inside to get my iPod. I race back out and plug it into the speaker system.

The song that I choose is Cyclone by Baby Bash. I skip back to my seat and say, "Okay, you may proceed." The song makes it funnier because Niall is obviously inexperienced in both giving lap dances and hickeys. We are all laughing and it looked like Zayn kept trying to pull away. The dare took shorter than Zayn and Niall made it seem like but we continued playing right away.

"Kim truth or dare?" he asks immediately after he sits back down in his seat.  
"Dare" I say, expecting a horribly humiliating dare to be coming my way.

"Since you made me give a lap dance, you get to do a striptease down to your underpants and you can't put your clothes on for the rest of the game" he decides. I chuckle at the fact that he chose that because it wasn't that surprising to me because of the options I gave Alexes.

"Alright," I say standing up without a single hesitation. "For everyone or someone specific?" I ask

He thinks for a second then says "Just for Louis." I went from being confident to nervous as hell so I ask, "Can I get a shot first? I'm still gonna do it but the bottles and shot glasses are sitting there so lonely."

"Make it quick" Niall says with an evil grin. I grab the bottle closest to me which happens to be the Vodka, and pour myself a shot. I put the lid back on the bottle and down the shot before I go to stand in front of Louis.

Before I do anything I ask, "Is someone gonna turn the music up or something?" so Alexes jumps up and switches it to a DJ S3rl song called Fuck the World, it has a good bass line but isn't too fast of a song.

The music starts and Alexes returns to her spot next to Liam. I am still nervous but I have to go through with this dare so I begin to strip to the beat of the music tossing my shirt onto his lap once it's off. I am so glad I am wearing my cute Victoria's Secret matching bra and underwear.

I finish the strip tease and go to pour myself another shot but Louis takes the glass from my hand and drinks it himself. As I take back the glass and pour myself more I look around and notice everyone's reactions. Niall and Zayn are laughing about it, I can see that Liam is stunned that I went through with the dare, and I know that Alexes wasn't surprised in the slightest.

Once I take my shot, I look at Liam and ask him "Truth or dare Liam?" I figure he wants to stay on the safe side so I start thinking of some truths. To my surprise, he chooses dare so I go easy on him and say "I dare you to kiss any member of this game, your choice." I am guessing he is going to choose Alexes since they both obviously like each other.

He nods and turns to Alexes, but before he kisses her he asks "Would it be alright with you if I kissed you?" She smiled and nodded probably unable to speak.

Liam kissed her gently and then pulled back, a shame but I wasn't really expecting much more than what he did. It is Liam's turn to ask someone and there is only one person left who hasn't gone, Louis.

Liam looks at Lou and asks him, "Truth or dare?"  
"Louis is fearless and chooses dare even though he figures it shouldn't be too bad since it is Liam choosing the dare.

"I dare you to wear Kim's shirt that she tossed in your lap earlier for the rest of the game unless told otherwise."

He took my shirt and held it for a moment before asking, "Over my current shirt or nothing under?"  
Liam replied and said, "Nothing under." and with that, Louis took off his shirt and put mine on.

Once he put my shirt on he looked down at himself then looked at me and asked "Why did I choose for you to wear a half top today?" and I laughed.

"I couldn't tell you love," I said to him while still giggling.  
Louis chose Niall and this time he decided to answer a truth. "If you were a woman for one day, what would you look like and what would you do all day?" Louis asked him.

Niall paused and considered what he would look like and then described himself as slightly shorter in height with middle length brown hair, slightly curvy with an average sized chest and bum. we all laughed at his description and let him explain what he would do as a woman.

We continued around the group in a random order, one person daring another to do stupid things. At one point Alexes was forced to take a shot because it was her dare; even if she refused she had to drink.  
"Do it! Do it! Do it!" Niall and I chanted, both of us rather smashed from all the drinking.

She sighed and picked up the pre-poured shot glass, hesitating for only a moment before attempting to down it. Alexes is not the reckless type so she has never tasted Vodka before and as soon as it touched her tongue, her face morphed into a look of absolute disgust. Once she was finally able to choke it down she got up to get herself some water.

When she returned with the water I said "You might want something a tad more flavorful than that my dear," pointing to the water glass in her hand.

"I'm fine Kim, but you might want to slow down on the drinking." she said with concern.  
"Oh bull shit! I'm plenty fine, just having fun. Besides, I don't have to go anywhere tonight." I say in a care free way as I lay back into Louis' lap and lay my legs over the arm of the couch.

We ran out of the alcohol on the table so Liam said "Okay guys, no more drinking," and we all groaned.  
"But Liam, it's funny watching people get plastered" Zayn says with a pleading tone to his voice.  
"No Zayn, you guys are cut off." Liam says sternly.

"Oh you party pooper!" I say at him, getting bored by the rules.  
"It's for your safety Kim, trust me" he replies.  
During my exchange with Liam, Niall was able to sneak inside and retrieve a few bottles of beer so we could continue the fun. He passed a beer to each person and his offer was turned down flat by both Alexes and Liam.

"I will allow these but that's the last of, do you guys understand?" Liam says sternly.  
"Yeah okay fine, we get it." Niall says while rolling his eyes.

"Let's get playing again!" I say trying to get the party mood going again. Before the whole drinking conversation happened it was Louis' turn to ask someone so I reminded him "Your turn to pick someone love."

He nodded and thought for a moment "Kim, truth or dare?" he asked me. I had to think for a moment, I wasn't sure if I trusted his dares or his truths since he has already made Liam jump into the unheated pool naked and has asked Zayn his craziest sexual fantasy.

"Dare... I think" I said hesitantly not sure what he was going to make me do. I guess he wasn't sure what he was going to choose either because he thought about it for about a minute before he said "I dare you to make out with your favorite member of this band." I had a feeling I was going to end up kissing someone tonight, good thing it was Louis. I didn't even bother to sit up from where I lay in his lap; instead, I reached up and pulled him towards me for the kiss.

I hear Alexes giggle and the other boys cheered as we were still kissing when we heard the front door close and Jenny laughing and talking to Harry.

I didn't care that they were back because I just kissed Louis but he ended the kiss and winked at me as the couple walked outside to where we all sat.

"Woah guys, where did your clothes go?" Jenny asks surprised as she takes a look at the group of us sitting outside.  
"Mine are all still on," Alexes says giggling because of the look on Jenny's face.  
"How was your date?" I ask her changing the topic from us to her.

"I don't kiss and tell" she says but it is clear on her face that it was the perfect night. "That still doesn't answer my previous question Kim, why are you guys in your underpants?"

"It's a little game I like to call truth or dare" I say as I burst out into a fit of giggles. Harry looks to the table and sees the empty bottles and says, "Oh my god Kim, you're drunk aren't you?!"

I can't answer his question because I am still laughing but Alexes answers for me. "Yes, very." she says shaking her head.  
"Kim!" Jenny shrieks. "That's illegal!"

"I know, but it's fun. Here have some" I say offering her an unopened beer bottle from the table. Jenny looks at the bottle stunned so Harry grabs it instead.  
"Don't worry about it love," Harry says. "she is in good hands here and so are you" he assures her as he opens the beer and takes a swig.

"I'm not drinking anything but do you guys mind if we join the game?" Jenny asks us.  
"Yes we mind Jenny, you are not allowed to play with us, ever" I say sarcastically as Harry leads her to the open love seat.  
"Thanks Kim, nothing but love from you," she says making everyone chuckle at our little exchange. Harry offers the bottle to Jenny but she shakes her head no.  
"Don't worry, you'll be fine. I promise I won't take advantage of you," he says with a wink. She sighs and looks from Harry to the bottle "Fine, but only one sip." she says, determined to stay sober."Whose turn is it?" Jenny asks us, and before any one answers I immediately say "Jenny truth or dare!"

"Dare" she says not knowing what to expect from a drunk me.  
"I dare you to give Harry a sexy lap dance!" I say  
"No! I already gave someone a lap dance! No repeats" Niall shouts in protest.

"But it will be funny to see what she does, besides you gave Zayn a lap dance AND a hickey." I say teasingly because I can tell he isn't proud of having to do so.

"That is going to be all over the news guys!"Jenny says laughing.  
"Show it off!" Harry shouts excitedly to Zayn.  
"Fine" Niall says, "I no longer object."  
"Okay Jenny! Get ready to lap dance, just let me pick a song!" I say as Zayn turns his head to show the hickey on his neck.

At first Jenny is hesitant to get up so I say, "It's a lap dance or a drink!" to get her to make a decision faster.  
"I'm not drinking again," she says trying to convince both the group and her self.

"Then dance woman! DANCE!" I say.

Jenny sighed and began giving harry an awkward lap dance for about thirty seconds and then stopped.  
"Jenny," I whined "You're supposed to dance for the whole song."  
"Yeah jenny, I don't mind" Harry says with a cheeky smile.

"Shut up Harry!" Jenny says, her face turning a bright shade of pink.

I pause the music and fetch Jenny a beer of her own and a few extra for the rest of us. When I get back outside I fully expect to be scolded by Liam but he is too focused on a conversation with Alexes to notice.  
"Here Jenny, it'll help you with this dance." I say handing her a freshly opened beer.

She hesitates for a moment before finally takin the beer from my hand. We all begin to cheer as she takes a few swigs.  
"You ready to finish that lap dance Jenny?" Louis asks giving Harry a thumbs up.

"Go on, start the music," she says as she takes one more drink. I wait for her to set the beer down and then hit play on my iPod. Jenny begins to dance again and after a little bit she begins to loosen up and really get into the dance.

Once the song ends, Jenny leans forward to kiss Harry and then sits back in her spot. "Yay Jenny!" we all cheer.  
"Okay, my turn to choose." Jenny says thinking of who to ask.  
"Oh pick me Jenny!" Harry says.

"Okay fine, Truth or dare Hazza?" she asks sweetly.

"You choose for me" he says leaning towards her for a kiss but she puts her finger to his lips and says "That's not how the game works silly."

"Fine," he says with a sigh "I pick truth."

"Okay, I'm not very good at this so how about this. If you had 24 hours left to live, what would you do and who would you spend it with?" she asks.

"Well what would I do? I would spend all twenty four of those hours with you" he says and steals a kiss from her.

"I would take you to anywhere in the world you would want to go and I would do everything you wanted to do as long as I get to do what I want in the evening," he finishes with another one of his cheeky grins.

"Oh my god Harry!" Jenny exclaims while laughing.

"Harry's turn to pick someone!" I shout.  
At one point we migrated inside and after two hours of playing, Alexes and Liam fell asleep on the couch; Liam with his arm around Alexes.

"I think it's time we headed to bed," Jenny says.  
"I'm not tired though" I whine.  
"Me either," Louis says.  
Harry smirks and says, "Then you two can stay up and keep each other entertained until you get tired." Louis, Harry, Jenny and I both laugh and Jenny smacks Harry.

"Well I am going to bed." Jenny declares as she walks off to her room followed by Harry. At this point Niall and Zayn were already off to bed. "Should we just leave them there?" I ask Louis pointing to the sleeping pair on the couch.

"May as well, no need to wake them." he says taking my hand and leading me down the hall to my own room. We step inside and I head for my suitcase where my pajamas are so I can put some clothes on now that the game is over.

"That was one interesting truth or dare game" I said as I threw on my pajamas.  
"Yeah," he agreed "It was definitely interesting." When I finish changing I turn back around to see him sitting on my bed. He was still shirtless and boy did he look good.

Hi abs were toned perfectly and his skin was just slightly tanned. He hadn't shaved recently so his face had a hint of stubble left on it.

The moon shone over the ridges of his arms, making me feel tingly all over. I couldn't tell if it was just the booze but I felt the desire to run up to him and crawl into his bare arms.

Instead of doing that, I caressed his muscular arm and kissed his bare shoulder and then his neck. He turned and wrapped his arm around me as we began to kiss passionately. We had both had a lot to drink but I knew I would want to kiss him whether I was drunk or not. After a little while of kissing we sat there in silence for a little. Finally he said something, "Hey Kimberley, I've been meaning to ask you something."  
"What would that be?" I asked.

"Well... I'm not sure how to say this but I was wondering if maybe you would want to be my girlfriend." I was shocked by his question, I was not expecting him to ask me this but I didn't want to wait too long to answer him. "Of course!" I said a little too excitedly and he pulled me in for another kiss and I could feel his lips smiling against mine.  
"So when is our first date?" I ask, breaking the kiss.  
"That's a surprise. Goodnight love." he said giving me one last kiss good night and he walked out of the room.

I couldn't sleep for a little while, I was too busy thinking about all the good and bad things that would come with being the girlfriend of a famous singer in a boy band. All the hate from the fans and the constant stalking by the press, two things that I am not looking forward to. At least I can say that he is mine and I am happy with that. With that last thought I doze off to sleep with a smile on my face.


End file.
